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Haha, grest observation, David. I agree. People usually need to be forced by mandate to follow these simple safety rules. Either that, or they have to believe their well being depends on doing the right things.

It's possible, though, to  make a habit of security protection. After all, you can get in the habit of doing all these other things, no?

You should exercise more.

You should eat more healthy food.

You should take your vitamins.

You should always obey the speed limit.

YELLOW light means STOP, not speed up.

You should always be nice to your neighbors.

You should clean up your dog's poo.

My thought is that when we get the world to handle these, then we can begin to focus on good passwords and avoiding shady sites and links.

You can have rules, you can have guidelines, you can have laws - but human nature is not to follow them :-(

but it's not realistic. A person is supposed to come up with a hundred unique passwords and keep them all straight? Without resorting to writing them down? Don't click on things on Facebook...okay, but that's kind of the point, isn't it? "Yes, you can go to the amusement park, but don't ride on any of the rides, because they might be dangerous"? Seriously, who's going to do that?

We need a better solution.

@Mashka: It's not just the SSN but a combination of SSN and other personal details that help in identifying. I know it's a weak strategy but that's what companies have been using.

I agree with all five. Unfortunately, there are countless users who routinely do one, two, three, or all of the above. I cringe at number 3, which reminds me a lot of my sister's teenage kids who register for every free clipart or online gaming site they can find. Of course, I tell them the do's and dont's when they're on the Internet when I can, but you know how kids can be sometimes.

Oh, and number 4 and 5, too. Those are just nightmares (and viruses) just waiting to happen.

According to consumer reports magazine -june 2012 , Eleven percent of households using Facebook said they had trouble last year, ranging from someone using their log-in without permission to being harassed or threatened. That projects to 7 million households—30 percent more than last year 2011

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/06/facebook-your-privacy/index.htm

@Mashka,

Are there people who publish their SSNs...? Indeed there are... and here's the single worst example of someone who should have known better:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/05/lifelock-identity-theft/

LifeLock CEO Todd Davis -- who advertised his SSN to promote his company's services. He needed it himself afterwards when his identity was stolen over a dozen times...

@Michael Good point. Online retailers like Zappos and even LinkedIn also have found themselves in the embarrassing position of having to warn their subscribers to change their passwords because their system has been hacked.