If January has seen you pledge to get into online dating, get fitter using an app or get control of your money with smart banking on your phone, listen up.
While tech has made our lives more efficient, we all know our phones and gadgets are bursting with personal information that can not only be hacked but sold on the dark web for all sorts of nefarious activities.
In the past, the most we had to contend with was dodgy phone calls from scam artists, but these days there is also phishing (via emails), smishing (via texts) and even quishing (via QR codes).
According to a study this month by Nationwide, men are far more likely to have their identity stolen than women (something 23% of men have experienced it, compared with 11% of women). The poll of more than 3,000 people revealed that more than two thirds are worried about their having identity stolen.
Despite this, 7% of people confess to ‘never’ checking bank statements for suspicious transactions and 24% never check credit files.
The impact of being hacked can be devastating, whether money is stolen, a reputation is tarnished or an online profile is eradicated.
‘Motivation for hackers is primarily financial, but it’s not the only incentive,’ says Jenny Radcliffe, who is known as the People Hacker. ‘Ideology is…
