One in five South African Internet users assume their passwords are of no value to cyber-criminals, according to a survey conducted by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International.<\/p>\n
However, passwords are the keys to account holders\u2019 personal data, private lives, and even their money.<\/p>\n
If passwords are stolen, the consequences can affect not only individual users but also their contacts, warned Kaspersky Lab.<\/p>\n
For example, a compromised e-mail gives scammers access to every account that the user has connected to it, thanks to the messages it receives notifying of successful registrations or responses to password recovery requests.<\/p>\n
In turn, a compromised account on a social networking site makes it possible to spread spam advertising and malicious links.<\/p>\n
A password to an account with online store gives cyber-criminals an opportunity to harvest financial data and spend other people’s money.<\/p>\n
Less than half (43%) of respondents in SA named passwords among valuable information they would not want to see in the hands of cyber-criminals, while 20% of those surveyed saw no value in their passwords for criminals.<\/p>\n
The survey shows that users often take the easy way out when creating and storing their passwords.<\/p>\n
Only 24% of users create a separate password for each account, while 4% of respondents use special password storage software.<\/p>\n
18% of those surveyed write down their passwords in a notebook, 14% store them in a file on the device, and 5% leave them on a sticker near the computer.<\/p>\n
19% of users share their personal account passwords with family members and friends.<\/p>\n
To protect your account against unauthorised entry, you should follow a few rules:<\/p>\n
Forget passwords, use your heartbeat to login<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Most hackable passwords in the world<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n How to create a secure online password<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n