Choosing common words is easy to predict from hackers

Your date of birth ... a key to stealing personal and banking data

  • The Ministry of Interior has warned of letters and calls aimed at hacking accounts and stealing information.

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Some of us are lenient in choosing the passcode for their account, whether on social networking sites or smart applications, including bank accounts, which makes it a victim of theft from hackers, as they put a list of potential codes, usually on top of the user's birth date, and thus it gives them the first possibility to access His account without hardship.

Dealers confirmed that their accounts were exposed to an attempt to hack or steal that they were facing difficulty in choosing a word that is easy to memorize, which made them choose the numbers closest to their memory, such as birthdays, marriage, or current year numbers, in order for them to recover it.

Radwa Ezzat said that with the multiplicity of programs and social media, she had to use one password for all of her pages so that she could remember it.

Someone managed to gain access to her accounts and seize them for a while, before she could recover them.

Rami Muhammad indicated that there is a lack of awareness of the importance of choosing a safe password, as some people make it easy to choose the date of his birth or the birth of one of his children, which makes it easier for the hacker to anticipate, and then penetrate it, calling for intensifying awareness campaigns in this area.

“Abu Muhammad” said that he must memorize more than 10 passwords for his bank and personal accounts, some of which require updating periodically, wondering how could he do that if he did not choose a uniform password that is easy to remember so as not to lose it ?!

And specialized studies state that users put their online safety at risk by making wrong decisions about passwords, and by making simple mistakes when choosing them, which may cause unpleasant consequences for them.

The Ministry of Interior and Abu Dhabi Digital Authority warned of mistakes that individuals make in choosing their passwords in their online transactions, which makes it easier to penetrate and steal their data, pointing out the danger of responding to fake messages and calls that lead people to be victims of fraud.

The ministry also warned against messages and calls aimed at hacking accounts and stealing information, calling for not to provide any confidential information, such as a password, bank data, or an access confirmation code.

She indicated the diversity of forms of fraud, including the attempt to lure the victim to reveal his personal information, or his pictures, to blackmail him, or impersonate a trusted party to try to gain the victim's confidence, and to accuse him of winning a prize to share his bank data or password, in addition to using intimidation methods such as closing the victim's account, He claims that he must respond within 24 hours.

The Ministry advised to ignore clicking on any anonymous link that arrives via e-mail or text messages, calling on in the event of a message or communication claiming to be from a reliable party to request data, to communicate with the source to be sure.

For its part, the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority, through its official account on the “Twitter” website, published instructions and tips to prevent password theft, warning that hackers are always very smart. They use personal information or common words to guess the victim’s password, calling for avoiding using Easy-to-access data, such as date of birth or phone number, when choosing your password.

It also warned against sharing their passwords or writing them down anywhere, to avoid finding them and exposing their personal accounts and their private data to hacking, warning that allowing any browser to store your password exposes all your data and accounts to the risk of hacking.

And cautioned to avoid entering your password on any computer if you are not sure that this device is safe, as devices that are available for public use may contain keylogging programs installed that allow capturing your password while writing it, which puts your private data at risk.

She emphasized that passwords can be hacked, but some may make things easier for hackers to use in the event of repeated use of the old password, which exposes their accounts to hacking, and therefore it is necessary to make the matter complicated for hackers, and to avoid using old passwords.

And she advised not to use one password for all personal accounts, otherwise hacking one account will be a breach of all accounts, because the hacker usually tries the same password or guesses similar words on different platforms and sites, which puts the data at risk.

She warned that some users prefer to choose short, easy-to-remember passwords, but they are also easy to guess by hackers, advising that long passwords include letters, numbers and symbols that are difficult to predict.

Penetration risk

A research study conducted by "Kaspersky" showed that 46% of internet users in the UAE are keen to choose new and unique passwords for their digital accounts on the Internet, and that 18% of study participants use the same password for all their accounts, which is a cause for concern. If one password is leaked, they are at risk of all their accounts being hacked and exploited in various ways.

The study also showed that many users mishandle passwords by resorting to unsafe ways to remember them, and 28% of the respondents admitted in the study to write their passwords on notebooks to help remember them, while 15% stated that they allowed the web browser They store passwords, and 23% saved them in a file on their computer.

And 16% said that they recorded it on a piece of paper and placed it near the computer, warning that even if the password is "strong" in terms of its composition, recklessness in memorizing it makes it vulnerable to others' access to it.

Forms of fraud include attempting to lure the victim to blackmail him, or impersonating a trusted party to try to gain the victim's trust.

- Using one password for all personal accounts, making the hacking of one account penetrate all other accounts.

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