Recently we heard that hundreds of millions of email addresses and other types of personal identification was found to be in the hands of Russian hackers. Scary. Here are some common sense steps you can take to keep the impact of hackers to a minimum.

First, how would you know if your personal information is part of the what was hacked? You have to assume that it is. This latest breach was enormous and similar attacks and smaller ones are happening all the time.

You should always change passwords for sites that contain confidential information like financial, health or credit card data. Never use the same password for multiple sites. You can try a password manager like LastPass or Password Safe, which was created by security expert Bruce Schneier. These services create a unique password for each website you visit and store them in a database protected by a master password that you create.

But if you want to create your own passwords, make sure they are not based on dictionary words. Also make sure they are not based on information about yourself that you have posted on Facebook or other social media sites! Create the strongest passwords for the sites that contain the most sensitive information and so not reuse them anywhere.

Passwords are really not enough in many instances. If a site offers additional security features be sure to enable them.

There is no real way you can stop your information from being stolen. Hackers have become so sophisticated. Only the companies storing your personal data are responsible for securing it. You can slow down hackers and identify thieves, but corporate computer security and law enforcement are the biggest deterrents.