Research from a leading people search website has revealed that 83% of Brits use either their pet name, date of birth or maiden name as their security password for private email accounts or online banking but only 37% are aware of the dangers of disclosing this information online.
83% of the British population use either their date of birth, pet name, street name or maiden name as their password or security question for most of their private email or bank accounts but more than 60% have not considered the dangers of discussing this information online, on sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
www.yasni.co.uk, a leading people search website, conducted a study of 733 Brits and found that very few are aware of the dangers of disclosing personal information on the web.
The recent cases of Sarah Palin and Harriet Harman having their private blogs hacked into reflect how important it is to monitor what information people are making public about themselves and whether this information can potentially expose an individual to fraud.
Steffen Ruehl, CEO and Co-founder of www.yasni.co.uk comments, "So often you hear about the dangers of talking to strangers online but people forget about the risks of talking to a friend. You may be telling your friend your new address or pet name and make your date of birth available for anyone to see online.
"With social networking sites and forums, in particular, people trust their friends and are at ease with the intended recipient of the message; therefore forgetting that this very private information has just been made very public. People just need to be aware of what others have access to and yasni.co.uk is a great way to find this information out."
Websites such as Facebook and MySpace automatically set peoples' profiles to 'public' and expect individuals to have the technical ability and understanding to be able to change this to 'private'.
Ruehl continues, "Social networking sites claim to be for anyone, of any technical ability yet they require a level of technical understanding just to make them secure. You'd be surprised how many people presume their profile is private, only to find out an ex, their parents, a prospective employer or someone more sinister is actually able to trace their every move."
www.yasni.co.uk allows people to search for themselves online and collects any publicly available information linked to their name; consequently offering people the ability to monitor and control what others have access to.