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As the popularity of sites such as Facebook and Twitter continue to grow, accounts for email and social networking sites have become prime targets for hacking, with almost 4.5 million (13 per cent) people claiming to have had their account hacked in to, according to a recent poll by moneysupermarket.com.
Watch your friends and family!
It seems that people's accounts are being hacked into not only by strangers but by family, friends, partners and work colleagues, as one in 12 (8 per cent) people have hacked or have thought about hacking into an account of someone they know.
Distrust was the main reason for people hacking into someone else’s account with the most popular reason being ‘suspecting a partner of having an affair’.
The top five reasons were:
- To find out if my partner was having an affair.
- To play a practical joke on the person.
- To check if friends were planning things behind my back.
- To see if my partner was planning to dump me.
- To stalk someone.
Despite being hacked into, one in seven (14 per cent) still took no action to prevent this from happening again.
Two thirds of adults (65 per cent) didn’t want lightning to strike twice so changed their passwords, a quarter (24 per cent) closed their account and created a new one, and 14 per cent deleted or disabled their account.
James Parker, manager of mobiles and broadband at moneysupermarket.com said, “Social networking sites have become a normal part of people’s everyday lives but it is important to remember that hundreds of people could have access to your private details, especially if your email address is linked to both your public profile and then used for things like internet banking."
- Protection tips when using social networking sites
“However it seems people not only need to be wary of strangers trying to access their accounts but also the people closest to them like their family, friends or partners. Our research shows that almost a fifth of people (18 per cent) use the same password for all their accounts, I'd advise people to change this habit if they want to keep their private lives private."
Top tips for staying secure include:
- Use a mixture of numbers, upper case and lower case letters in passwords and always password protect your wireless internet with non dictionary words and numbers.
- Try to use a different password for each service you subscribe to.
- Never write passwords down and always uncheck 'remember me' on public computers.
- Avoid displaying email addresses publically .
- Make sure you have appropriate security software and firewall.
To view your personal credit information that lenders are currently basing their credit decisions on, apply now for a free online credit report. Click here for a free 30-day trial and a free copy of your Experian credit report
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