Passwords are the first line of defense against a cyber-thief stealing the keys to the kingdom. One of the best ways to do that is to set up strong, unique passwords for each online account, and the best way to choose a strong password is to know how they can be broken. Read more: Facebook says 50M user accounts affected by security breachĪny breach can place an individual’s personal information at risk of ending up in the hands of fraudsters, but there are several online security measures that can be taken to create unbreakable barriers. But the fine was merely a slap on the wrist, as it is roughly the amount of revenue the social media giant generates every 5 ½ minutes, according to The Guardian.Īdditionally, Facebook recently reported a major security breach in which 50 million user accounts were accessed by unknown attackers. As a result, Facebook was fined $660,000 for lack of transparency and failing to protect users’ information, as reported by Forbes in July 2018. More than 270,000 of those users “willingly” gave the information over by signing up for a personality quiz app. One research firm, Cambridge Analytica, was able to obtain personal data from as many as 50 million Facebook users and used that data as part of its work on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Exactis is a data accumulator with the sole function of collecting as much data on as many people as possible, which is then sold to legitimate businesses. According to one cyber security firm, Shape Security, of all of the login attempts made on retailer websites, nearly 90 percent of those attempts are hackers using stolen data, the highest percentage of any sector.ĭata breaches in other sectors can be devastating as well, as was seen when the information of 143 million Americans was put at risk in the notorious Equifax breach, or the Exactis breach that affected 340 million people. Many were caused by flaws in company payment systems that were taken advantage of by computer schemers.ĭata breaches overall are on the rise for both retailers and other businesses, but retailers seem to be the preferred venue for hackers. In 2018, there were data breaches at 16 major retailers, including Macy’s, Sears, Kmart, Saks Fifth Avenue, Adidas, Gamestop, Best Buy and others. Infograph shows the top 10 worst passwords | Image courtesy of, St. This leaves an enormous amount of personal information vulnerable to hackers.Īnd cyber criminals capitalize on those weaknesses. The average person has anywhere between 25-30 online profiles or accounts, according to CNET, but uses only five passwords for all of them. and around the globe, malicious cyber criminals compromise websites and online accounts, posting lists of usernames, email addresses and passwords on the darknet.
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