I'm a journalist and author. I make my living by finding things out and writing about them.

If you do write down your passwords, don't make it obvious which password corresponds to which account. Even better, write the passwords incorrectly and make up an easy rule for fixing them. You could decide to add 1 to each number in your password, so that 2x6Y is written as 3x7Y.

By now, you've heard endless warnings about the risk of short, trivial passwords. There's a good chance you ignore them.

Friend of mine, a smart journalist, had his iPad stolen. He couldn't help that - the thief broke into his house. But his private, personal data wasn't stolen, exactly. Donated, more like. He had no passcode set on the iPad.

Privacy and encryption work, but it's too easy to make a mistake that exposes you.

Well-secured files don't do you much good if you lose them in a fire or hard drive crash.