Weak passwords mean more security issues | Maildistiller

It is more likely that your accounts will be hacked if you use a weak password. It is time to start take?on-line?security seriously.

Despite the news being full of reports on hacking lately, internet users are still using generic, weak passwords which make them easy targets for identity theft and other cybercrime. This week, 8 million passwords from Gamingo were leaked online but this is only the most recent incident in a long stretch of internet security breaches. Most professional online companies make it clear that the strength of your password increases the security of your information and makes it less likely to be hacked. So why is nobody taking these precautions?

The general public are currently ignorant of the growing need to protect personal information on the internet and this dismissal of online security includes businesses. In a campaign against the threat of cyber-attacks, President Obama wrote in the Wall Street Journal about the need for businesses to take online security seriously, stating that ?many companies have boosted their cyber defences. But many others have not, with some lacking even the most basic protection: a good password.?

The hacking scandal against Yahoo?s phone-to-pc service (Yahoo! Voice) exposed 450,000 passwords were online. The Hackers used this attack to show Yahoo where they needed to improve their security. However it should also be a wake-up call for all internet users about email security. Securing personal information and private emails should be a top priority. The hacking company responsible for the Yahoo breach (D33Ds) released all the information they obtained for the whole World Wide Web to see and for anyone else to use if they wished.

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The report showed that the vast majority of users chose to use rather simplistic passwords. ?The most popular were 123456, password, welcome, ninja and abc123 which are easily guessable for a professional hacker trying to break into an account. Another issue was that since the victims used these simple passwords for other sites, a variety of other accounts were hacked, such as gmail.com, Hotmail.com and aol.com.

The other major attacks were against LinkedIn and eHarmony in June when 6.5 passwords were exposed from the social network and 1.5 passwords were exposed from the dating site. This caused an abrupt exodus from the site as well as a flurry of passwords being changed across many sites. Of course, the site would claim they have improved security since then but unfortunately hackers could easily strike again.

Sites in the public domain like social media sites and email, which contain more personal information about the user, are more vulnerable to these attacks. That is why it is vital for online security that your password protects you as much as possible. Once again the most common LinkedIn passwords were found to be simple and easily guessed with the most popular being link, 1234, work and God.

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The key point I would like to make in this blog is this: while these bigger websites are being hacked on a larger scale, there are still hackers working on specific accounts to try either to guess passwords or to execute individual attacks on user accounts. This is happening on a regular basis and from the examples of Yahoo and LinkedIn, it is clear that now is the time for users to pay attention to their online security practices. Here is what any user should do when creating a password for any internet service:

1. ?Think of a password you can memorize and adjust for any account,?e.g. womble
2. Then make it more secure by changing some of the letters to?upper-case?and numbers,?e.g. W0mb1E
3. Remember the more complex a password is, the less likely you will be hacked.
4. Do not use the exact same password for each account. Vary it slightly or change it completely depending on how well you will remember it.
5. For email accounts, a user should regularly check for missing data or strange messages. Do not click on external links without checking their security.
6. ?For social networking accounts, users should avoid communicating with users they do not know or appear to be suspicious. This stops hackers manipulating the information on your account to guess your passwords.?

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Source: http://www.maildistiller.com/online-security/weak-passwords-easy-targets-for-hackers/

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