Internet users prone to risk-taking

A survey has found that almost half the internet’s users in the UK and the US use the same password for all their internet accounts, whilst 12% of users have illegally logged on to another person’s unsecured wireless connection.

Having the same password for all accounts puts users at extra risk from hackers, as only one account needs to be hacked to steal all of that person’s private data. Yet only half of the internet’s users bother to switch passwords for their different internet accounts.

Just 7% of internet users change their passwords frequently.

A less popular but still prevalent trend was Wi-Fi piggybacking - logging on to another person’s unsecured wireless network.

Although piggybacking is illegal, with culprits in the US and the UK being arrested and charged, one in seven US survey respondents said that they had piggybacked on an unsecured network, whilst the figure in the UK was one in 11.

Unsecured networks are easily hacked into because the data sent over them is unencrypted and can be read by anyone with simple hacking skills.

The survey was carried out by Accenture, who conducted telephone interviews with 800 US and UK residents. All respondents had high-speed internet access at home, and logged on to a password protected account at least twice per week.