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Britons may need to change their passwords ASAP if they’re making some simple mistakes which gives hackers the upper hand. Security experts are warning the ways cyber crooks can easily guess someone’s password, and you may be surprised the lengths bad actors go to hack into someone’s account. As Mark Riddell from m3 networks recently revealed, one way hackers can guess a stranger’s password is by going through their online activity.
The boss of the cyber security firm revealed pictures you may innocently share online, say of your child’s birthday party or a post about a childhood memory, could lead to hackers guessing critical passwords which gives them they keys to your accounts.
During a recent speech in Dundee, Riddell said: “Even though you may have forgotten, the internet never forgets content you posted years ago.
“Cyber criminals use a range of tools to try to access a business’s accounts. Automated tools that brute force try thousands of weak passwords are popular.”
As the Daily Record reported, the boss of the Scottish-based cyber security firm said your digital footprint can be used against you to hack into your accounts.
Phone security: How hackers can obtain private information
He said: “You might consider using your childhood dog’s name to be a safe password, but it probably isn’t.
“Especially when you did a Facebook post seven years ago about how much you miss your dog… including its name.”
The thing about digital footprints is hackers can access a lot of information about a target publicly, thanks to social media pages that are open to the public.
A trawl through your Instagram, Twitter or Facebook page can reveal plenty of personal things which could be used to figure out passwords.
If you have ever used a personal memory as the basis for a password it’s best to change it today to stay safe.
For anyone wondering how to create a password that is difficult to crack but easy to remember the UK Government recently issued some handy advice to create a secure password.
GCHQ revealed you can create a secure password by combining three random words together.
This will be easy enough to remember but also tricky to hack – especially if you use a mixture of lower and upper case characters, replace certain letters with numbers and use special characters.
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