Computer Safety Tip

Security Is Weak Due To Poor ID Questions

March 12, 2010 Computer Safety Tip

The truth of the matter is that the majority of people around the world do not pay much attention when filling out security questions, while creating an online account. It has recently been claimed by security researchers that this is a very bad thing to do. It is actually easy for online hackers and cybercriminals to be able to guess aspects such as a mother’s maiden name. If this information is not able to be guessed it is very possible for a cybercriminals to find this information both quickly and effectively online.

According to the latest research findings it was found that from a statistical point of view, that if hackers were given three opportunities to guess answers to various passwords, they would alarmingly be able to actually hack into every one in eighty accounts. This is very scary due to the factor that if a hacker or cybercriminal is able to hack into your account, this could very well result in you becoming the next victim of a big cybercrime of even identity theft.

It has also been found that guessing answers to security questions can enable a hacker to actually overwrite a password, without even being aware of what it is. A study that was conducted by Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon, had some interesting findings. It was discovered that seventeen per cent of the answers to the majority of security questions could actually be guessed by individuals who knew the owner of the account.

It has unfortunately also recently been discovered that when email accounts are hacked then an online attacker is able to gain access to various other online accounts pertaining to that individual who may require email registration. This vulnerability is a very serious computer risk to all computer users all across the world. Some email providers are taking this vulnerability very seriously and are actually attempting to create their own password reset functions in order to make everything more secure in this regard.

Google actually is able to send reset password by text messages. Hackers and criminals are seriously starting to play a bigger and bigger role in creating problems for all computer users everywhere. All people are warned to take computer security extremely seriously as well as to always have up to date software running on their machines. It is also highly suggested that when you create online accounts you think about what you are doing and try and make sure you take internet security into account when creating an account.

Tags: cybercriminals, online account, online hackers, Poor ID, security, security question, Weak