How account take­over happens

Billions of records of personal information are stolen in data breaches every year. The leaked pass­words and user­names are often just what hackers need to commit account take­over. Because most people use the same login details on multiple accounts, hackers will try to access other online services with the same leaked pass­words and user­names.

Hackers can break in by simply trying out different pass­words to find the one you use. To speed up the process they use programs that can test tens of billions of pass­words — in a second. This way any 8-character pass­word can be discovered in approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Criminals can also just ask victims for their login details. This is done through phishing scams, in which unsuspecting victims are lured into giving their data. Phishing attempts can be done through emails, SMS, scam web­sites, malicious phone applications, chat conversations, phone calls and so on.

Malware and viruses can do multiple things. A typical function is stealing information from the victim’s device. Many viruses can record your key­strokes when you type in your pass­words and others spy on your browser and hi­jack bank information. You can prevent this with anti­virus soft­ware.

Your internet traffic passes many servers before reaching a web­site. If some­one on the route inter­cepts your traffic, they can see every­thing you do on the inter­net. This includes your pass­words and user­names. Typically, these man-in-the-middle attacks are done through public Wi‑Fi net­works or infected home inter­net routers. You can protect your­self with trust­worthy VPN soft­ware.