You may have heard that Paris Hilton’s cell phone got hacked recently. The hacker got into her phone list and e-mail list because she uses a data device known as a Sidekick II. He proceeded to make prank calls and send e-mails to people, which may seem like a nuisance. But this can be dangerous. Paris may not know it, but she did the country a big favor as the victim of hacking. It’s called attention to the low number of people who “password protect” their voicemail and e-mail. As more people buy these all-in-one devices like the Blackberry and the Treo, the hacking possibilities grow. So, protect your information by setting up passwords on it. If you are not sure how, call your cell phone provider and someone should walk you through it.

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What about your brokerage account? What if someone could hack into that, and before you knew it your money was gone? e*Trade has come up with a product that will help protect your accounts. It’s a key chain that changes secret codes every couple minutes. You need the code from that key chain to log into your account. So it’s nearly impossible for anyone else to get in. Clark commends e*Trade for its efforts.