I had just purchased a coffee at a nearby coffee shop the other day. On the way out the door I glanced at one of the other customer's laptop screen. It caught my eye because he was a customer of the same bank I use. One glance was all it took for me to know he was paying his bills. I debated whether to say something; and I'm still not convinced I did the right thing. In the end, I fought off the impulse to ask why he'd be so careless with the keys to his identity.

Have you ever seen a sign in any public WiFi place telling you not to worry about identity theft? Have you ever seen a sign telling you they guarantee your identity won't be stolen if you use their free service? Of course you haven't. That's because they can't guarantee your confidential access and account information won't be stolen by identity thieves snooping around on their WiFi.

Identity thieves are everywhere, including your local coffee house. The tools identity thieves use are easily available and easy enough for a clever high school kid to use. Not only that, but even my grandmother could write down a password she watched you type in. Identity thievery can be as low-tech as shoulder surfing. If you don't want your identity stolen, never log in to any of your on line accounts in a public place.

And while we're at it, here are a couple of my own thoughts about password protection and protecting your identity.

• Always use strong passwords. By strong passwords, I mean the kind that just won't be guessed. Sure, with the help of a computer, or a bunch of them, it's possible to guess just about any password these days. Your passwords need to be strong enough that the work required to guess them is more than the value of what's inside the account. Your passwords should all look something like this: Wk8vmJN3XX3x
• Use unique passwords for each and every account. Do you key all your cars the same? Does your house key match your car keys? To avoid identity theft and to protect your assets, set a different password for each account.
• Never write your passwords down. This one's obvious, not only because strong passwords like Wk8vmJN3XX3x are both too difficult to remember and to write down, but also because writing them down makes them accessible to identity thieves. Beside, reading and typing them in is impractical. That's why you need a password manager. There are lots of them out there - both free and paid. Use Google to find one and use it.

Identity theft is big business and it's a big problem. With a little common sense you can make your own identity a lot harder to steal. Use that common sense and the identity thieves will bypass you and look for easier locks to pick, like the guy in the coffee shop.