A brute-forced or stolen password can give access to a user's every last detail - starting with personal photos and finishing with credit card details. That's why it's highly advisable to use complex passwords to access online services. It is also important not to use the same password for different services, for fear of losing not only important data but also your "online" personality, for example, via accounts on social networking sites. A survey carried out for Kaspersky Lab by O+K Research in 25 countries worldwide shows that the risks of simple passwords is not fully understood by users in GCC - 38% of respondents are practically unprotected (34% globally).
According to the survey, users in GCC use insecure passwords which are easily brute-forced without any special techniques are used far too often. Examples include a date of birth (10%), a middle name (4%) or a pet's name (3%). This sort of information may be known not only by your close friends or relatives. A creative fraudster can easily find it on the Internet, for example, on social networking sites. Another 16% of those surveyed use a simple combination of figures such as '123456' or similar, and 9% of respondents simply use the word "password". This type of "protection", like other passwords based on easy-to-guess words, can be easily and quickly brute-forced.
Another problem which is often overlooked is the repeated use of the same password. In theory, this avoids the danger of forgetting passwords. In practice, though, if this universal password is compromised, fraudsters have an easy path into several accounts, services and programs. According to O+K Research, 16% of users within the GCC region use one password for all accounts while 30% use different passwords for each account. Given one third of the survey participants (37%)never heard of applications or services that allow users to centrally manage and protect multiple devices, so we can imagine the size of the potential security breach.
As mentioned above, the place where you store your password is very important when it comes to data security. The good news at least is that most users (73%) prefer to memorize and not to write them which is not bad in itself, but often results in simple passwords or one password for several accounts. 39% admitted that they have forgotten a vital password at least once. 8% just write the password on a piece of paper and leave it near their computer, while 13% use an ordinary paper notebook for this purpose.
Passwords are just the first and basic line of protection when it comes to securing online operations. Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 provides a wider range of technologies to protect your privacy and your identity - including two unique security features for entering personal information online. Secure Keyboard is a new Kaspersky technology that automatically activates whenever you open a bank website or payment website - or you enter a password within any web page - to ensure that information you enter using your physical keyboard can't be accessed by keyloggers. In addition to that, for our ultimate protection, Kaspersky's improved Virtual Keyboard feature allows you to use mouse-clicks to enter your banking information - so that keystrokes can't be tracked or stolen by keyloggers, hackers or identity thieves. Kaspersky Internet Security has always included additional layers of security that help to keep your information safe during online transactions. Now, with the introduction of our unique Safe Money technology, users benefit from even greater protection. Safe Money automatically checks that the website you're visiting is secure - and it also offers to open the website in a special, protected mode to help keep your credit card number and other personal data safe from cyber thieves.
The full report on the O+K Research survey results is available at http://www.kaspersky.com/downloads/pdf/kaspersky-lab_ok-consumer-survey-report_eng_final.pdf
About Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab is the world's largest privately held vendor of endpoint protection solutions. The company is ranked among the world's top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users*. Throughout its 15-year history Kaspersky Lab has remained an innovator in IT security and provides effective digital security solutions for consumers, SMBs and enterprises. The company currently operates in almost 200 countries and territories across the globe, providing protection for over 300 million users worldwide. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.
For further information please contact:
Cynthia Darwish, Senior Account Manager, GolinHarris, Dubai: +971 50216 3352
Sousie Babekian, Associate Manager, GolinHarris, Dubai: +971 50 5950735
© Press Release 2012
