INTERNET SHOPPING FOR BURGLARS
Date Published: 28/05/2012
Over nine out of ten Brits, (91%) using social media at least once a week have been asked to connect online with someone they have never met, and over half (51%) have accepted these requests, according to Legal & General's Digital Criminal 2012: CyberSafety reporti.
Digital criminals and burglars are exploiting this trusting attitude and are creating networks of fake profiles to engineer a set of mutual friends, to target individuals and their homes and businesses. The connection enables the criminal to uncover a wealth of personal information about the social media user, the home and where they work, making them and their homes an easier target for burglary and potential risk to the business they work for.
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Nearly half of social media users (49%) have never 'Googled' themselves so they are unaware of the personal information that digital criminals can instantly uncover.
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Over half of social media users (58%) have set up a profile on the internet which they no longer use 35% of these are on Friends Reunited, and 18% on an online dating website
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Nearly one in five (17%) who have 'Googled' themselves found information which they weren't aware was publicly available
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Over half (57%) are unaware that anyone searching on the internet can access and read their tweets
Legal & General's virtual housekeeping tips:
1. Be secure
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Use firewalls, anti-spyware and anti-virus software
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Use strong passwords, which are eight characters or more, and contain a mixture of letters, numbers and symbols
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Use different passwords for each account
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Don't use your email address as a log on name
2. Clean up your online footprint
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Google yourself to find out what information is posted about you online
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Delete old profiles, such as Friends Reunited, Bebo and old dating profiles
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Check out what is stored on you for marketing purposes on websites such as 192.com, 123.com and others
3. Check your privacy
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Check out each social networking site's privacy policy
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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
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Check which applications have access to your private data
4. Be wary of strangers
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Don't accept friend or connect requests from people who you've never met
5. Limit what you publish
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Don't reveal your date of birth or gender
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Don't reveal where you live or post telephone numbers
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Don't talk about your holiday plans, weekend plans, or new purchases
If the worst happens, and you are a victim of burglary, make sure your home contents insurance will cover any losses.
http://www.legalandgeneralgroup.com/media-centre/press-releases/2010/group-news-release-814-manual.html