Experian warns of substantial increase in ID theft

According to credit checkers Experian there has been a staggering 300% increase in online identity theft since 2010. In addition to that it is estimated that fraudsters have been using at least 12 million pieces of stolen information online since the first quarter of 2012.

Experts say that some of this increase is due to access being made easy to hackers because users of multiple online accounts tend to use the same passwords. By gaining entry into one account they move on to other accounts known to be held by the owner. Victims often don't know they have been targeted until they are either refused credit cards and loans or get approached by debt collectors.

Another security threat facing us is the ever increasing theft of passwords such as what happened with Yahoo earlier this month. Passwords should be changed regularily and contain a long string of alphanumeric characters to make hacking more difficult.

Here are some other things you can do to better protect your online accounts.

1. Be careful if you use your PC on a shared network.

2. If you use WIFI make sure it is secured.

3. Use different passwords for every online account you use.

4. Make sure the website you are accessing is genuine and not fake.

5. Have an up to date antivrius, malware, spyware program installed.

6. Ensure your web browsers security is at an acceptable level to prevent phishing.