The vast majority of people are not taking the necessary steps to protect their identity online. Some three-quarters (75 per cent) admit they do not follow best practice to create complex passwords. That is according to a new survey from the official campaign Cyber Streetwise.
New guidance from the government states the key to creating a strong password includes using three words or more and adding a symbol to make the password even more secure.
The figures were released to mark the launch of the latest phase of the government’s Cyber Streetwise campaign. With the police and industry, Cyber Streetwise aims to raise awareness of wise and unwise behaviour online. Despite 95 per cent of Britons saying it is their own responsibility to protect themselves online, two thirds are risking their safety by not using symbols in passwords. Near half (47pc) have other unsafe password habits such as using pet names or significant dates as their password. The new statistics are revealed during Cyber Security Awareness Month and ahead of Get Safe Online week.
Modern Slavery and Organised Crime Minister Karen Bradley said: “When passwords are compromised, financial and banking details can be stolen, causing problems for the person affected, for businesses and for the economy. There is an emotional impact caused by the loss of irreplaceable photos, videos and personal emails, but even worse, these can be seized to extort money. We can and must play a role in reducing our risk of falling victim to cyber crime. Most attacks can be prevented by taking some basic security steps, and I encourage everyone to do so.”
The research suggests four in five, 82pc of people manage more online accounts that require a password than they did last year, with the average Briton dealing with 19. Over a third (35pc) of those questioned admit that they do not create strong passwords because they struggle to recall them. However, poor passwords leave people vulnerable to identity theft, fraud and extortion. Cyber crime is a serious threat to the UK and the government is taking action to increase public awareness of the risk. The government points to the £860m dedicated over five years through the National Cyber Security Programme for the UK response to cyber security.
Director of the National Crime Agency (NCA) National Cyber Crime Unit Jamie Saunders said: “The NCA is working closely with law enforcement colleagues all over the world to target and disrupt cyber criminals, but we should be clear that they will target weakness and therefore having weak passwords will leave you vulnerable.
Nobody wants their personal financial details, business information or photographs to be stolen or held to ransom, so simple things like using three or more words, a mixture of numbers, letters and symbols, upper and lower case letters will make it much more difficult for hackers to access your details.
Advice on creating strong, memorable passwords can be found on cyberstreetwise.com, with other tips for staying safe online. Tips for creating and remembering passwords include:
Loci method: Imagine a familiar scene and place each item that needs to be remembered in a particular location i.e. red rose on the table, book on chair, poster on wall. Imagine yourself looking around the room in a specific sequence. Re-imagine the scene and the location of each item when you need to remember
Acronyms: Use a phrase or a sentence and take the first letter from that sentence
Narrative methods: Remember a sequence of key words by creating a story and littering it with memorable details e.g. ‘the little girl wore a bright yellow hat as she walked down the narrow street…’
For more on Cyber Security Awareness Month visit the European Cyber Security Month website – http://cybersecuritymonth.eu/whats-ecsm.
Comments
George Anderson, director of Product Marketing at internet security product firm Webroot commented: “It’s sad but not surprising that 53% of British people have fallen victim to cybercrime. The Internet has become assimilated into our daily lives, from banking to retail, to the point where it’s easy to forget how hazardous it is if the proper security measures aren’t taken. They key to making the UK a safe internet user zone is education. As a country, as communities and as individuals we should be actively promoting awareness of Internet safety and security issues. The government’s research should not scare people away from online activities, but rather start serious and continuous conversations whereby we evaluate the online precautions we take both at home and at work. Education should start young, with parents and education bodies working to ensure security savvy future generations. Understanding what preventative measures we can take ranges from a rudimentary awareness to in-depth, technical knowledge; however far too many people have become too complacent with modern technology to even practice the basics. The modern person should by now know that computers should be protected by updated, best-of-breed antispyware and antivirus software, have safe surfing habits and a full comprehension of online activities that put their information at more risk than others, be able to identify and understand website privacy policies and know when or when not to give out personal data.”
And Darren Anstee, Director of Solutions Architects at Arbor Networks said: “It is not surprising that only 32pc of cyber-crime victims report incidents to the authorities; in many cases this will simply be because they don’t know how, or don’t have the time to time to find out. Our use of technology is very convenience based, and a level of apathy exists around any enhanced security that effects the ease with which we can use our devices or access our data. To some extent we see similarities when looking at businesses. For example many businesses have implemented incident handling plans to deal with cyber-security events, but a much lower percentage actually exercise these plans on a regular basis to ensure that they function optimally.”
