|
Legal & General Reveals Increased Risk from Digital Criminals
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, Mar 2, 2012 (Marketwire via COMTEX) --
Legal & General's Digital Criminal 2012: CyberSafety report(i) reveals attitudes to social networking is putting social media users at risk of falling victim to increasingly sophisticated cyber criminals.
According to research conducted for Legal & General's home insurance business, 91% of Brits who use social media at least once a week are asked to connect online with someone they've never met and 51% accept these requests which are effectively from strangers.
To highlight some of the key findings from the Report, we've created a series of infographics (images and key facts), and a video.
Also, to help you stay safe online, Legal & General have the following 'virtual housekeeping' tips:
-- Be secure
-- Use firewalls, anti-spyware and anti-virus software
-- Use strong passwords, which are eight characters or more, and
contain a mixture of letters, numbers and symbols
-- Use different passwords for each account
-- Don't use your email address as a log on name
-- Clean up your online footprint
-- Google yourself to find out what information is posted about you
online
-- Delete old profiles, such as Friends Reunited, Bebo and old dating
profiles that are unused
-- Check out what is stored on you for marketing purposes on websites
such as 192.com, 123.com and others
-- Check your privacy
-- Check out each social networking site's privacy policy
-- Set your account's privacy controls to 'private' and be wary of the
'friends of friends' permission settings - think about how far this
widens your network
-- Check which social networking sites have access to your private data
-- Be wary of strangers
-- Don't accept friend or connect requests from people who you've never
met
-- Limit what you publish
-- Don't reveal your date of birth or gender
-- Don't reveal where you live or post telephone numbers
-- Don't talk about your holiday plans, weekend plans or new purchases
You should also ensure you have suitable home contents insurance in place should the worst happen and you are a victim of burglary.
The Digital Criminal 2012: CyberSafety report is available to download or alternatively, find out more about Legal & General's home insurance or get a home insurance quote.
(i) Consumer research for Legal & General's Digital Criminal 2012: CyberSafety report was conducted with 2,005 UK adults who use social media at least once a week, between 16 and 18 January 2012.
Legal & General Insurance Limited. Registered in England No. 00423930.
Registered Office: One Coleman Street, London EC2R 5AA
We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
We are members of the Association of British Insurers.
SOURCE: Legal & General
Media contact details:
Legal & General
Robert Smith
0121 633 6080
Robert.Smith@landg.com
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|