4.5 million online accounts hacked
- Added:
- Oct 09, 2009
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, according to a new poll.
The survey, conducted by moneysupermarket.com, found that 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:
1. To find out if my partner was having an affair
2. To play a practical joke on the person
3. To check if friends were planning things behind my back
4. To see if my partner was planning to dump me
5. 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: “It's worrying to know some people do not act when they have been the victim of a hacker.. People need to take hacking seriously and follow advice to safeguard themselves against attempts to access their account and personal information.
“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.
“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."
Methodology:
Opinium Research carried out an online poll of 2,008 British adults from Friday 21st to Tuesday
25th August 2009.
Source: www.moneysupermarket.com
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