The internet is now a huge part of most people's daily
lives, we do our shopping, banking, work and even socialising online, and with estimates
of over 2,749 million people now logging
on it's no surprise that the growth in identity theft, spam and hacking has
soared.
It's not just
individuals who are at risk from cyber criminals, large and well established
companies can be victims too. Last month saw software company Adobe fall victim
to hackers who revealed millions of users passwords.
An interesting
analysis of the exposed passwords revealed a shocking discovery, almost 2
million users had set theirs to '123456' followed closely by '123456789' then
simply 'password'.
The rise in social networking has also made identity theft
easier as criminal now has access to personal information such as your date of
birth, full name, address and other information we often seem happy to publish
online which we wouldn't dream of giving to a stranger in real life.
A great
way to look at your personal information is to think would I give this over to
a stranger? With some simple personal information and an easily guessable
password cyber criminals can access your bank and money, obtain a credit card,
buy goods and even apply for a driving license or passport!
To help make your online experience safer and securer, we've
put together our top tips to ensure you know don't fall foul to these cyber
criminals.
Choosing a password
Given that passwords are used to protect most of your secure
information online it's vital you choose them carefully:
- Don't use a real words, try a combination of letters which would be difficult to guess
- Make it memorable, this ensures you don't have to write it down or store as a file on your computer
- Never use information related to you such as a pets, child’s or partner’s name or a postcode or house number
- Use a combination of upper and lower case, include numbers and try adding non- alphanumeric characters such as brackets or commas.
- Don't use obvious word or number combinations like birthdays, house address and once you decide on a password don't recycle it like pass1, pass2, pass3
- Always use separate passwords on your accounts, it means if one is compromised your other accounts are still secure
- Never reveal your password even if the organisation or individual seems legitimate, and if you are supplied with a password by a company change it straight away.
Hopefully these safety tips will prove useful and help you
continue to enjoy using the internet, if you need any more info, there is a
wealth of information online and we are always happy to talk about any of your
security issues. To get in contact just call: 0845 519 2122 or email mail@casac.org.uk
