I know people are bothered about protecting their Orkut account and safe guarding their privacy, so what do you need to know of protectting a Google Account?

1. How the account can be cracked.
2. How to get it back, once it’s gone out of your reach.
3. Take the precautions!
   

Google Accounts or any other web based service is immune from being cracked due to a flaw or a security hole in the system, in *MOST* cases, the account gets hacked due to ignorance of the user, the chances including, making yourself a victim of phishing, using the “Remember Me” feature on public computers, saving the passwords on browsers in computers which may be accessed by someone without your consent, etc.

So what are the things an ignorant user normally does that makes him a victim of account hijacking or cracking?.... *NEVER*, use your login information on any other page other than Google.com or Orkut.com, do not give your password to website that have new Orkut themes, or applications, sometimes an unofficial site may claim to offer special orkut features, but these sites can hijack your orkut accounts.

Do not turn on the “Remember Me” feature on, while logging in on a public computer, if you’re using a public computer, always remember to logout before you quit.

Do not save passwords in browsers of public computers or computer which might be accessed by someone without your knowledgee, it is possible to extract stored passwords even without opening the browser(Hacking using USB). In case you’ve accidently stored your password in a browser, either change your account password or erase it from the browser.(check here)

Use strong passwords which are longer than 8 letters, use a combination of alpha-numeric values and symbols. “yourname123″ is a really bad idea for a password; do not give any passwords that can be easily guessed, like your date of birth or car number. When it comes to the *secret question*(very important,often ignored!!), do not give direct answers, for e.g. When asked for your library card number, do not give your exact card number or a direct answer. Give something that only you alone know, I always recommend to use a custom secret question which you alone know.

Links to sites outside of Orkut that appear in scraps or posts have not been verified by the orkut team, and could lead you to harmful sites. Click only on links that go to trusted sites or those that are from other orkut users you know well.

Never copy and paste those javascript code into your address bar, no matter what it claims to be able to do. Typically these scripts actually send messages (in your name!) to your friends trying to trick them into giving up their personal info. Its best to leave the codes to those who know it best, the Google Engineers!

Do not download anything from Orkut, especially executables like exe, or vbs files, Orkut is not a download site, its a social network, and you will be responsible for any actions caused by downloading what is not provided directly by Orkut.

If someone who took over your account is using it to defame you, insult you in public, its always best to approach the Police, there are laws in almost every country(in India too) to control such cases.

Once you believe that somebody took over your account, this is the place to go: https://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/request.py?ara=1&hl=en

But before going there, you must be prepared to answer the following questions, and that is where the precaution part comes in

• Do you use Gmail with this account?
• Do you use Orkut with this Google Account?
• Do you use Blogger with this Google Account?
• Google products you used with this account and the date you started using each one.
• The account creation date

And most users do not remember these dates and causing nothing more than loss of valuable data and in some extreme cases a great insult to your social life. To avoid these, take care to note down this information and keep them secure. To know the date you started using each Google product, just look up the welcome emails you got.

stay safe!

-->all credits to "anuja"