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NEW YORK (WABC) -- It's Cyber Security Awareness Month, which means it's a good time to brush up on your digital hygiene.

There are more gadgets that connect to Wi-Fi than there are people on the planet, and all of these make you vulnerable to criminals.

The password to any of your accounts or devices is like a back door to your digital life, and once inside, a hacker can access everything.

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Four and a half million usernames and passwords are for sale on the dark web, and the breaches of giant databases mean most of us are "PWNED," or "password owned."

"It's a hacker term for owned, like we owned you, we own you," said Chris Rouland, CEO Phosphorous Cybersecurity.

As a teenager, Rouland was arrested after he hacked into 7,000 systems, including the U.S. military. To avoid jail time, he went to work for the Air Force and eventually IBM.

"Anyone can buy your password right now and start logging into your stuff," Rouland said.

There's even a website to check how many times you've been PWNED.

The ethical hacker recommends two steps: update your software and change your passwords.

"That will give you 90% better security than anybody else has, because no one does that," Rouland said.

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Change passwords, and once you get a new camera, gadget, or smart home devices like a thermostat or toy, make sure you log in and change the default password ASAP.

"There's so much pressure to produce these cheaply that the software that goes on them has no quality assurance," he said. "Basically, if it works, it ships. So they end up getting hacked...they're used as what's called a pivot. So someone will hack into easy-to-compromise devices in your household and then attacks the rest of it."

He changes passwords at least a few times a month and never shares passwords across multiple accounts.

For example, don't have the same password on Amazon that you do on your bank account.

Also, disable universal plug and play on your wireless router. Atlas VPN says when it's enabled, it permits instant connections to the internet for all their gadgets.

That gives any device access to your network.

You might need to implement a unique process for turning UPnP off.

In the majority of devices, you can do this by logging in to your router. Simply enter the public IP address as an URL in your web browser.

Then, under "Advanced," you should see the "NAT Forwarding" section. Then select "UPnP" and disable this feature.

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