The most common password is "password."  If you could guess that, how long do you think it would take someone to guess YOUR password?  (If you guessed "abc123" or "qwerty", you were close.)  Keeping track of your passwords is important, and it's not as hard as you think.

Also, Adobe Flash and Adobe Shockwave have critical updates you should get.  And if you don't want Internet Explorer 8 automatically downloaded, you can block it with a tool from Microsoft.  [Click here to read the whole column.]

Here are the links mentioned in today's column: 

• Most Common Password http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2113976,00.asp
• KeePass Password Safe http://keepass.info/
• Check Adobe Shockwave and Flash versions http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome/
• Install Adobe Shockwave Player http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/
• Install Adobe Flash Player http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/?promoid=DXLUJ
• Toolkit to Disable Automatic Delivery of Internet Explorer 8 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=21687628-5806-4ba6-9e4e-8e224ec6dd8c&displaylang=en
• Internet Explorer 8 Blocker Toolkit FAQ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/updatemanagement/dd365124.aspx
• Download Internet Explorer 8 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=341c2ad5-8c3d-4347-8c03-08cdecd8852b
• Computer Care Kelowna http://computercarekelowna.com/
• Getting Along With Your Computer Column Archives http://rlis.com/column.htm
• Get Cate's column by email http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=20618
• RSS Feed: http://rlis.com/rlis.xml

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cate@rlis.com