Users of Hacked Online Services Are at Increased Risk | Free Antivirus

A new study by F-Secure, “The Walking Breached”, shows that people who use hacked services are at a significantly higher risk of falling victim to cybercrime. For users with children, the likelihood is even higher. Sadly, the number of "The Walking Breached" is growing every day.

The fact that user 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 by F-Secure, 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 takeover ” 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 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 in the process of cramming much of the 1.9 million Pixlr user credentials from the Pixlr photo editing site that went online last month into every available online service and finding that many of these credentials are working perfectly.

Although good password advice has been around for nearly 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 using the internet are increasing is having children, as the report shows.

People with children who participated in the survey were more likely to have been 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 were more likely to experience almost every type of cybercrime addressed in the survey 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:

·              You have less time to worry about security measures, which include tactics like using a strong, unique password for all accounts and storing them in a trusted password manager or locker.
·         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 larger 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 online is not necessarily caring. This includes sharing passwords between accounts and between family members - or anyone else.

Use the best free antivirus to protect your device from the hacker.

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:

• 1.    Make an effort to use strong, unique passwords.
• 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.