New research, shows that people who use hacked services are at a significantly higher risk of becoming victims of cybercrime. For users with children, the likelihood is even higher. Sadly, the number of "The Walking Breached" is growing every day.
The fact that users of hacked services, especially
if they are parents, are affected by cybercrime far more often should be a
wake-up call. Securing not just your own devices and accounts, but the
devices and accounts of all family members should be an immediate priority.
Vulnerabilities Fuel Crime
In a recent survey, 18% of respondents - almost one
in five - knew that they used one or more online services that had been hacked
or had security breaches. * Although this is only a fraction of all Internet
users, It seems that cybercrime is much more prevalent among respondents who
know they are using breached services: 60% of these respondents, or 3 in 5,
said they had experienced one or more types of cybercrime in the 12 months
before taking the survey compared to just 22% of the other respondents.
The dynamics of a phenomenon known as “ account takeovers ” can help explain why injured users
experience more crime. Once the credentials are known, attackers can begin a
process called “ credential stuffing ”
to try on tens of thousands of accounts with very little effort. If they
manage to take over the account, they can then begin monetizing it through
various forms of fraud known as identity theft.
People who reuse their credentials are at greater
risk of an account takeover. Each leaked credential becomes something that
criminals can easily use to generate more and more profits. And by gaining
access to less secure accounts, such as B. a photo editing site, criminals
can use the exact same credentials to take control of much more valuable
accounts, such as B. Online payment or streaming apps. For example,
criminals are just about to cram much of the
1.9 million Pixlr user data from the Pixlr photo editing site that
went online last month into every available online service and discover that a lot of these credentials are working perfectly.
Although good password advice has been around for
almost a century - use strong, unique passwords for all accounts stored in a
trusted password manager - too many users make the cybercriminals' lives easy. 41%
use the exact same passwords for different online services. 59% reuse
passwords with slight variations.
Parents Suffer More from Data Breaches
and Cybercrime
Unfortunately, one reason the risks associated with
internet use are increasing is having children, as the report shows.
People with children who participated in the survey
were more likely to be affected by a security breach, 22% compared to 19% in
the general population. They were also more likely to have reported some
type of cybercrime in the 12 months before taking the survey - 36% compared
to 23% of those without children. People with children who experienced almost
every type of cybercrime addressed in the survey more frequently than their
childless counterparts. And parents who knew of at least one broken
account were 70% more likely to be victims of cybercrime than injured users in
general (60%).
Some ways that put parents at higher risk include:
· Parents simply have more things to secure - not just their own devices and accounts, but those of their children as well. And getting children to follow safety advice is often not easy.
· With children, you have a bigger digital footprint and are more likely to have personal information leaked online.
One of the challenges of being a good parent can be
teaching a child to share their data. However, sharing it online isn't
necessarily caring. This includes sharing passwords between accounts and
between family members - or anyone else.
How to Avoid Becoming One of The
Walking Breached
The Walking Breached shows how internet users
literally get stuck between tree and bark. They rely on online services
for much of their lives, and they need to trust that these services keep their
personal information safe. The report includes several recommendations for
protecting accounts before and after a break-in, including:
2. Do not give out any private information.
3. Whenever possible, go beyond passwords with 2-factor authentication.
4. Monitor the integrity of your personal information by using a trusted service to track whether your information has been disclosed online.
5. Keep track of your accounts by reviewing your bank statements and turning on any alerts offered by financial institutions.
6. Don't underestimate the risk of threats, as accounts can be opened quickly and forgotten just as quickly.
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