Many people make the mistake of thinking that hackers only want high-profile sites and financial institutions. Although it is true that these websites are premium targets, many hackers also perform illegal infiltration of websites to get to private accounts and obtain information from individuals, businesses and corporations. Are you in danger of a breach? Here are the sites where you are most likely to get hacked and how you can protect yourself.
[Read also: Simple Steps to Stave Off Hackers from Accessing Your Computer]
Do you think hackers only target high-profile sites and financial institutions? How safe is the general public from hackers? Tell us what you think in the comments.
[Read also: Is Hacking an Inside Job?]
Your e-mailaccount is very vulnerable. Hackers often attack the most popular electronic mail providers, many of which experience multiple breaches each year. One of the ways hackers get to you is by using information from social networking sites to get through security measures such as a password security question.
How to stay safe: Use a strong password for your e-mail accounts; if necessary, use a different one for each account. Never share information about your passwords or leave clues anywhere. Open your e-mail only through a secured network. Free Wi-Fis are notoriously vulnerable and easy for skilled hackers to infiltrate.
Never, under any circumstances, share e-mail information and passwords through your account. If the mail was sent by your bank, credit card company or school, always verify before providing anything. Check e-mail settings periodically. Some hackers manipulate their victims’ accounts so mail is forwarded to an account they have set up for this purpose.
Online Banking Sites
Security on online banking sites are generally well-established but with the kind of information these websites hold, they are simply just too tempting for hackers not to touch. the most common ways hackers infiltrate these websites is by using phising attacks and keyloggers. Viruses may also be used to gather private information and spy on account users by tracking their activities.
How to stay safe: Use a good password for protection and install security software such as a firewall on top of a good antivirus program. It is also a good idea to update the operating system and antivirus software you are using to ensure better protection from new security patches.
[Read also: Why You Should Update Your Antivirus Software Frequently]
Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites are some of the most vulnerable sites targeted by hackers. Due to the sheer number of users and personal information they contain, these sites are fair game.
How to stay safe: If you have accounts with sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc., you will have to be extra careful about the passwords you use and the type of personal information you offer whether in text or image form. Avoid clicking on links provided, particularly if they lead you to a login webpage. It is likely it could be fake and may be part of a phishing scam.
Online Shopping Sites
Websites that process payments are too tempting for criminals to pass up, so these are likely where you will get hacked. Passwords, account names, addresses and even bank and credit card account information are usually found here.
How to stay safe: Always transact with online shopping websites that are reputable and have security measures in place. When paying online, check that the URL starts with a ‘https://’. The extra ‘s’ at the end of the ‘http’ is a protocol identifier that indicates a secure connection or network. When paying, consider using a third party payment processing service such as PayPal. That way you could pay with protection and prevent anyone from accessing your personal information.
[Recommended read: I’ve Been Hacked! 5 Things to do]
Are there anymore sites where we are most likely to get hacked? What are the tips to stay safe from these sites? Please share with us in the comments.
One of the popular type of site which I can think of here is places that provides download for crack files & torrent files. Virus, Worms, Trojan, every Malware is easier to spread via drive-by downloads or torrent downloads. Although it can be tough to avoid those sites, but we should try our best to avoid if possible because at times, even Antivirus cannot help >.<
Appreciate the addition Alan. Thanks!
I think you forget to add this points. I am fully agree with Alan.
Nice post Peter.
I hear some hacked sites are because of the way the hosting server is configured. Some configurations are safer than others. Other times it is related to a problem with a website script. It could be old and out of date or the website owner didn’t upgrade or apply a security patch. So it can be a good idea to keep things up to date. Like you said use good passwords and don’t forget to change them too. I have a few accounts that I change monthly. It is kind of a pain, but I feel a little better about doing so.
I know, having to change that many passwords regularly is really tedious! But it does feel “safer” after that 🙂
The most vulnerable sites are the networking site. MY orkut account hacked 2 times in the past. 🙁 Nice post peter.
Thanks Puneet. Are you still using Orkut after being hacked twice? Remember to change your password regularly ok? You wouldn’t want it to be hacked the third time wouldn’t you? 😛
Wow, 99 articles! Well done Peter 🙂
Thanks Christopher! Same to you, I see you’ve already achieved 100 articles on Technology Bloggers 😛 Glad you dropping by.
My pleasure 🙂
True, from experience two of the main culprits are form Adult oriented sites and Hacking/cracking site. These are the types of sites that you should be careful when navigating to. (“Be carefull” because I know it’s hard to totally “avoid” those types of sites *chuckle)
🙂 Thanks for sharing your thoughts Ken.
It is indeed difficult to just do any online transactions using the net. A friend of mine got her facebook account hacked. She had to report her account to facebook and had it deactivated. From my own experience, I opened an email message and got malware on my computer. Too bad these hackers are just everywhere waiting for their next victim.
Same here! My FB and email accounts got hacked once. I wasn’t using a strong password that time, luckily not much damaged was done. I knew my email account got hacked when a friend told me that he received an email from me asking him to click a link in the email so that he could get a Rolex at a discount! Ridiculous isn’t it?
Totally ridiculous… guess there are just too many freaks these days who wanna try there hands at scamming other people for their own benefits. Lets just all be cautious so no big troubles will come along our way.
Hmm, so it’s not really advisable to use and share same passwords for all your email account.. Strong password and regularly changing it will surely help also. Well done Peter, thanks for reminding us.
You’re welcome Nhick! Using the same password for all the accounts is definitely not recommended. Thanks for reading.
No no I am not using orkut for now. I left using it. Yes by the way that time I used to change the password. But now not using. 🙂 🙂
It’s scary how hackers can get what they want. In some cases it doesn’t matter how good our password is, if the website/service providor leaves the back door open. Like what happened to Sony.
Also the most popular places for hackers to attack us are warez sites, sites with cracks and serials.
Plenty of smart hackers hide their trojans in cracks for internet security programs, this way they know the target is probably unprotected.
I sometimes think that hacking is an inside job. I don’t know…, it could be right?
Security is an ongoing issue in the internet. I love shopping online but security makes me hesitate to do it. I agree that we should only transact through reputable third party payment processing like paypal. If you are shopping in a local online business, make sure that the owner is also proven to be trustworthy by checking on some feedback about him/her.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Cass.
Such a great post to remind us this kind of thing. As an internet surfer we have to be more secure especially in shopping online, hackers are very intelligent to trigger us and destroy everything of what we have.
Yeah! I think we should be more careful while using the net as prevention is always better than cure! Thanks for reading Nicholle.
Your list is spot on, Peter.
I got my e-mail accounts compromised a couple of times.
I usually know that my friends’ accounts got hacked too, because I’d receive a lot of links (without personal messages) both in my inbox and in YM chat windows.
Yea. There was one time my friend called me that he received an email “from me” that asked him to click on a link so that he could purchase a Rolex on a discount. My friend didn’t click of course, but we were stunned of how my email account was able to be compromised. Nice to hear from you teecup, hope to see you around 🙂
Online shopping is one of the most factor that promotes for hacking if we enter into the phishing sites.
Yea I agree Pavan. Online shoppers just have to be extra careful with it.
Nice post. All this fake sites are created by phishing. people should know about SSL certificate. because fake sites don’t have SSL certificates.
Nowadays, even Facebook is getting Pretty insecure. It’s just a matter of time before it gets hit again!
I think that’s why they said do not put all your personal info on your FB bio 🙂
Now days no social networking site is safe , every day lots of accounts hacked by hackers.
You really share good tips.
thankyou for sharing ..