Zuckerberg hacked on Twitter, Pinterest

News on Monday that Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, and therefore one of the most tech-savvy people living on planet Earth, has been hacked, should be a wakeup call for everyone using multiple web services with the same password.

"Hey, [Mark Zuckerberg]," one message sent from Zuckerberg’s Twitter account reads. "You were in [the] Linkedin Database with the password "dadada"! DM for proof." Zuckerberg isn't a big Twitter user. His last tweet was sent in 2012, and the rogue tweets sent by the hackers have since been deleted.

In 2012, LinkedIn was hacked and 117 million passwords compromised and it turns out one of them was Zuckerberg's. Someone going by the name of OurMine Team found his details and used them on other social media platforms where he had an account and this gave them access to Zuckerberg's Twitter feed and Pinterest.

How? Because he's used the same password for all three. It's called password recycling and it is rule number one in the book of things not to do if you don't want your digital life hijacked.

Don't want to make the same mistake as Zuck? Security experts recommend that you use a different, strong password for each account you have. That way, if one of them gets compromised, the others aren't too. If it's difficult to remember all the passwords, then use a password manager.

However, inventing unique yet easy to remember non-dictionary-word passwords for every web service in your life is an impossible task.

According to Global Web Index, the average adult with web access now has 6.5 separate social media accounts alone. That's before email, online retail, digital services like Uber and so on. Back in 2013 it was estimated that the average web user was juggling passwords for 26 different services.