Consider a gender-neutral e-mail address (username). If your e-mail address is sexygal@domain.com,"' then you are flashing your intention to "play." Know that people judge your character and your purpose online by your username.
Choose a name that does not imply a feminine gender. The username "janedoe" is definitely feminine, whereas "jdoe" is not.Cyberstalkers tend to target feminine usernames for the simple reason that the vast majority of cyberstalkers are men looking for women.
Choose a good account password and change it regularly. The best passwords don't spell anything and don't follow any logical pattern. If your chosen username is "wizard," then using a password such as "spell," "wand," "cat," or "abracadabra" is logical, but not wise. Make your password at least seven letters long, upper and lower case with numbers as well letters, longer passwords are harder to break. NEVER TELL ANYONE your password.
Edit your online profile. Get familiar with "Finger" command, which is a way of looking up your username and domain and obtaining information about you from what is called your Plan file. Try out your own email address with Finger and see what comes up. If you don't like what you see, change it. Take out personal information so no one can find out about you. You can try a finger search on yourself by going to the following site on the web: http://www.rickman.com/finger.html
Review your e-mail signature and e-mail headers. What does your e-mail signature say about you? Your e-mail signature is added to every piece of e-mail you send. To check yours, send yourself some e-mail and then look at the headers at the top and the signature at the bottom. Make sure this does not give away your home telephone number or any other personal details. You can configure the e-mail headers yourself.
Use a good IRC client to chat. Two good ones are mIRC for a personal computer and IRCLE for a Mac. Both support a full range of IRC commands and procedures.They both enable you to protect yourself and perform rapid analysis if someone is harassing you. Many chat clients do not permit IRC commands - these are best avoided. You can get mIRC and IRCLE from: mIRC - http://www.mirc.co.uk IRCLE - http://www.xs4all.nl/~ircle
Chat on a good IRC network where there is a good "Acceptable Use Policy" enforced by the IRC administration. Make sure the chat network supports all IRC commands you need to protect yourself. Also, a good chat network has online assistance only a message away. To check a
network, as soon as your sign on, type: /whois. If you don't get any response, or you get a message like: ***:No such nick/channel, then you have limited protection and no way to trace anyone who attacks you.
Consider your choice of nickname, username, realname, finger file and user info file when you set up your IRC client. Choose a username that is boring and neutral-gender. Also, it is suggested that an alternative e-mail address be used such as hotmail or netaddress (usa.net). These e-mail are limited to the server homepages and can't be traced to your local domain.
Consider using an anonymous remailer (or e-mail alias service) to post messages to newsgroups. Posting in newsgroups, bulletin boards, and other Usenet postings enables cyberstalkers to trace you. Many of the postings are stored in archives such as Dejanews and can be accessed for months after the posting is made. To read about anonymous remailers, visit: http://www.well.com/user/abacard/remail.html.
Consider using an anonymous web browser (browse the WWW by going through an anonymous Web browsing service). This will make it impossible for your web-surfing to be logged by Websites so no one will be able to pick up any information on you. Information on this service is located at http://www.anonymizer.com
Consider using encryption to authenticate your e-mail messages. Encryption prevents someone from impersonating you. PGP is a program often used for this type of e-mail, and is a difficult program to learn but is very valuable for authentication of e-mail. Information on this program is located at http://www.well.com/user/abacard/pgp.html.
Discuss your safety and privacy requirements with your Internet service provider and enlist their help and advice. Don't be afraid to discuss these issues with your local Internet provider. You are paying them to use their service, and you have a right to assistance.
Learn your technology. Cyberstalkers prefer to target beginners for harassment, because beginners are less likely to know what to do, and how to fight back. Never let anyone in a chat room, or by e-mail or newsgroup posting, know that you might possibly be a beginner.
Keep evidence of possible harassment by saving messages, or copying and pasting to self-e-mails. Archive chat logs in the event of trouble. If no trouble occurs, then discard the logs.
If you are keeping a blog, be conscious of what you are saying on it. It is accessable to more people than you realize and if your private thoughts are on it, they're no longer private.