The most important information you have while online are your passwords. This is particularly important because if someone else gets your password they might as well be you. In Active Worlds you have two passwords. The first one is the password to your account; this password should never be given to anyone under any circumstances.

Privileges

Your second password is your privilege password. This password is related to your account as well and allows someone else to build on your behalf. A good rule of thumb is to always change your privilege password if you give it to anyone else once the session is completed. By changing the password you effectively take control of any property built on your behalf and it cannot be erased.

Use Caution

One of the positive experiences we all share is chatting. However, you should be cautious as to the nature of a chat. Social engineering is a technique used by people who make a habit of cracking systems. Oddly enough the most common way to get a password is to simply ask for it. This may be couched in a survey or an extensive casual chat. In the last months the Peacekeepers have seen two possible attempts to gain access to an AW server. In one case the IP address was in Russia. While both of these incidents did not pan out for the individual requesting the information, they did raise some concern. A good thing to watch out for is when a chat begins to get technical or extremely personal - your alarm bells should go all out. If you are uncomfortable with the kind of information being requested in a chat, simply leave.

Here's some really sound advice from Shakespeare:

Hamlet I, iii, 55-81

LORD POLONIUS

And these few precepts in thy memory See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch’d, unfledged comrade.

Translation: Be careful around people you don't know and those who were there when you needed them keep them close.

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