In the context of this article, "account" refers to anything on the internet that requires a username and password in order to access it, such as a web-based email account, instant messenger account, and so on.

There’s an old word (if you could call it that) that’s been used time and time again in thousands of different I.T. departments across the world, and that word is PEBKAC, pronounced "pebb-kack." It stands for, "Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair."

PEBKAC accurately states the #1 reason why people get their account(s) compromised, that being end user stupidity and/or lack of knowledge.

Here are some classic examples of PEBKAC:

"My husband/wife and I use the same email account because it’s more convenient."

Not good. One of you is going to inevitably make a major error that will lead to you losing the email account in some way. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve gotten away with it to this point, nor does it matter how much you trust each other. One of you will screw up, probably very innocently with no bad intentions whatsoever. And when it happens (and it will,) bye-bye email account.

Email accounts should only be used per individual. Shared accounts is just a bad, bad idea because there are way too many things that can go wrong just from normal use.

"I use the same password for my email as I do for my online banking account, because remembering passwords is just too hard."

Dumb. This means if one of your accounts is compromised, so are the others. Why? Because you probably use the same username as you do password for all your accounts.

Solution to problem: Use KeePass.

"I keep my account information in a Notepad text file on my desktop."

Not smart. Okay, so you’ve got the right idea to at least keep track of your accounts, but in the worst possible way. Anybody who goes in front of your computer can open the file up as its in plain sight. And even if you’re the only one who uses your PC, if your hard drive crashes, your account info is gone.

Again, KeePass it. Store the database on a USB stick. It’s encrypted.

Here’s a few other ill-advised methods for your consideration:

• Using the browser to store all username/password information. Bad because anybody who uses your PC has access to everything, and I guarantee you’re not backing up your credential information.
• Using a browser bookmark synchronization service to store all username/password information. Also bad. The bookmarks supplied with account credentials are still on your local drive. You’re at least backing up your stuff, but are still poising your account information to be compromised from the locally cached copy.
• Setting site preferences to keep you logged in for more than 24 hours. Thankfully, online banking prohibits this – even down to an auto-logout after 10 minutes of inactivity. But other web sites do not do this. There are some (like Gmail for example,) that have a small checkbox that state to keep you logged in. I strongly recommend against using features like this, because I guarantee you’re never clicking the "log out" link but rather just closing the browser. This means somebody else can simply walk up to your PC, open the browser, go into the history to see where you’ve been, then have complete full access to whatever you were signed into just by clicking a few links. It’s all right there.

If you exercise basic common sense when it comes to your account information, the chances of your accounts getting compromised decreases dramatically.

I’m not saying to get all paranoid and lock down your PC like Fort Knox. What I am saying is that you should be aware of the simple ways (as outlined above) not-so honest people can get to your information.

By individualizing account credentials, using an external means of account information storage and routinely clearing your browser history, these simple steps add a rather good level of protection. No, it will not protect you from all means of ways an account can be compromised, but it’s a really good start.

Some sites make it easy (more or less) to delete your account if you don’t feel like using it any longer. Others however make it exceedingly difficult.

Recently I was going thru my password manager and realized there were a ton of accounts I simply didn’t use anymore, so I figured I’d get rid of them. Some I was successful with, while others.. not so much.

Deleting a Gmail account

Google has their services set up in such a way where Gmail is a product attached to your primary Google account. For example, FeedBurner, Picasa Web Albums, Google Docs, Google Alerts and so on are all products.

You have a few options here. You can either delete just the Gmail account, or delete the Google account entirely.

• Go to https://www.google.com/accounts (and yes, the https must be present).
• After logging in, click the Edit link next to My products.
• If you want to delete Gmail alone, click Remove Gmail permanently.
• If you want to close the entire account, click Close account and delete all services and info associated with it.

Deleting a Hotmail account

Microsoft is similar to Google in the respect that Hotmail is deemed a product attached to your Windows Live ID.

• Login to your Hotmail/MSN/Live account at http://login.live.com
• Click Close account
• You may be told that the system is unable to do it and that you have to "Close your Microsoft account". Go ahead and do it.

Is the Hotmail account truly closed at that point? No. The account will be treated as if you haven’t logged in for a few months. After a few days, all information will be removed, so I guess that’s the closest definition of "closed" you can get with a Windows Live ID.

Closing a Yahoo account

Yahoo makes it easy. Follow the steps here.

Closing an AIM account

I could not find a way to close an AOL/AIM account. After a Google search, it would appear the only way to "deactivate" one is to not login to it for six months. Not an elegant solution by any means, but it’s at least something.

Finding links to close other types of web accounts

All web services should make closing your account easy, but unfortunately they don’t. Everybody does it differently. But there are a few common threads.

• Names: It can be called "Close Account", "Remove Account", "Delete Account", "Terminate Account", etc.
• Links: I’ve seen several instances where the "Close My Account" link is black and non-underlined making it look like plain text when in fact it’s a link.
• FAQ: Try searching the FAQ for the web service you’re trying to close.
• Profile: Sometimes the link to close an account will be listed under "Profile".

If you cannot close the account, what do you do?

You will run into some instances where there is no way to close the account (like Identi.ca and AIM). Chances are the reason you want to close it out to begin with is to stop getting those stupid emails from the service. The easiest thing to do is to edit the profile and change it to use a throw-away address. Once done you won’t get anymore crap from them in your email.

You have a Gmail account but want to switch to another one. Most people do this when they want to set up a “business” Gmail account or simply because they found an Gmail e-mail name they like better.

You could enable POP on the old account and retrieve the mail in the new Gmail account that way, but then the timestamps get all reset to “new” and the Sent Mail gets all screwed up.

Is there a way to migrate from one Gmail account to another while retaining all proper timestamps and Sent Mail?

Yes there is and this article will explain exactly how to do it.

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On the vast majority of web services that offer free screen names it is expressly forbidden to sell your name to someone else.

Why? It’s mainly to offset screen names turning into property that the providers can’t control, i.e. it would turn into a huge big frickin’ mess. Trust me, there are very good reasons why screen names are forbidden from sale.

Andrew Baron has evidently decided it’s a-okay to sell his Twitter screen name. It’s on eBay right now and has a current bid of over $1,000 at the time of this writing.

Is this correct?

No, it isn’t.

However, due to a possible loophole in the TOS (Terms of Service) for Twitter, Baron can most likely get away with this.

The reason this is so disgusting is because Baron is basically selling off not only his Twitter account but also all the “followers” on it as well. And I don’t really think they necessarily appreciate that.

This is wrong in so many ways. You don’t sell a community or even so much as a piece of it, be it large or small. That would be like PCMech selling it’s entire forum to someone else without any consideration of the users at all.

[Source: /Message]