Passwords: You're still not doing enough

NEWS Users are still being careless with their passwords putting themselves and their employers at risk from hackers, according to a survey by online bank Egg. As well as making obvious choices such as partners' names and favourite showbiz stars more than half of the people questioned don't even bother to change their passwords. Experts recommend you renew your password every month, yet only one in 10 of the respondents do so on this basis. Consumers are also at risk from the social engineering tactics employed by hackers. A common scam is to target someone over the phone for either their own password or someone else's insisting it is needed immediately for technical purposes. Robert Schifreen was the first person to face trial by jury for computer hacking back in 1985. Schifreen was charged with committing forgery but was acquitted on appeal. His case led to the introduction of the Computer Misuse Act. Schifreen has long since retired from hacking but explained that hackers are still using the same techniques to uncover sensitive passwords. But he also apportions some blame to the security vendors for the current state of affairs. Schifreen told silicon.com: "Securities companies are targeting the wrong people. They aim at IT staff and not end users such as secretaries who aren't interested in the technology but are the people that hackers target."