The short answer is change your password every couple of months and use a combination of letters, numbers and special characters.
If you were wondering if you've been compromised, an article in the Toronto Star today indicates a way you can find your answer.
I used it for 5 regularly used email addresses and found 15 instances for one of them.
Naturally it caught my attention, until I checked the instances and found they were a few years ago.
Only one of my addresses hadn't been compromised ... but all instances were a few years ago.
I encourage you to add this site to your browser favourites and check it a couple of times year.
Here is the website to check your email addresses
