Social media users 'should vary passwords'

People are putting their employers' IT systems at risk by using the same password for business and personal accounts, an expert has asserted.

Social media users should consider having different passwords for other online accounts, otherwise they could be putting their business at risk, according to an industry insider.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at software developer Sophos, claimed that 33 per cent of people have the same password for all of the accounts that they set up.

He commented that a problem arises when hackers manage to see an employee's social media password, since there is a good chance that the same code or word is used for their business account too.

Mr Cluley explained: "If hackers grab your password on one site, they can use it to unlock everything else about you."

In his view, social network users share too much information when they go online and it is putting employers' IT systems at risk.

According to a recent study by Palo Alto Networks, many companies have outdated IT infrastructure and usage policies, which may not protect them against web-based applications.

16/11/2009