Business owners and employees have been reminded of the dangers of making personal data freely available online. One IT security expert claims that social networking users risk becoming the victims of identity fraud by innocently giving away too much information.
A ‘reformed hacker’ (presumably a member of Hackers Anonymous), said the details many people make freely available on the internet are often enough to allow fraudsters access to their bank accounts. The trouble is, if you put out on the internet in general things like your date of birth, where you were born, what your mother's maiden name is, where you went to school – those are the same bits of information that banks want to know for security questions," he explained. “It is very easy to guess somebody's password after finding information about them by looking online, and "this is one of the things that fraudsters do."
Research released this week by CPP, a provider of life assistance products and services, revealed that people in the UK receive an estimated 420,000 scam emails an hour - the equivalent of one every seven seconds. Fortunately most are blocked by strong Firewalls or good security software.
With this in mind, APA urges all web users to take greater care with their bank details when using the internet. "The golden rule is never ever type in usernames, passwords or credit card details after clicking on a link within an email message," said APA Technology Director Colin Minto.
APA
A ‘reformed hacker’ (presumably a member of Hackers Anonymous), said the details many people make freely available on the internet are often enough to allow fraudsters access to their bank accounts. The trouble is, if you put out on the internet in general things like your date of birth, where you were born, what your mother's maiden name is, where you went to school – those are the same bits of information that banks want to know for security questions," he explained. “It is very easy to guess somebody's password after finding information about them by looking online, and "this is one of the things that fraudsters do."
Research released this week by CPP, a provider of life assistance products and services, revealed that people in the UK receive an estimated 420,000 scam emails an hour - the equivalent of one every seven seconds. Fortunately most are blocked by strong Firewalls or good security software.
With this in mind, APA urges all web users to take greater care with their bank details when using the internet. "The golden rule is never ever type in usernames, passwords or credit card details after clicking on a link within an email message," said APA Technology Director Colin Minto.
APA
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