Tips to keep safe from hackers this summer

While the summer weather cannot be guaranteed, one thing can be is summer criminals. When people fall into that relaxed summer mode, it causes an incredible multiplication in everything from car thieves to computer hackers.

Stealing cars and hacking computers aren’t so far apart nowadays, as criminals are increasingly using cyber technologies to aid assaults in the physical world. Here are some hacks to be on guard for in the summer:

Website woes

People like to go on holiday during the summer. This even includes network technicians and IT staff, who contrary to popular belief don’t spend their entire lives in dimly lit server rooms. Unfortunately, this means there are less highly trained personal available to prevent – or even notice – hacker incursions.

The “summer steal” has started already, with Yahoo! suffering the loss of 400,000 usernames and passwords (please change your password if you have a Yahoo! account) and NVIDIA losing its forum users’ usernames and email addresses.

Our advice is to always have a unique password for every website. I know it’s a hassle, but we’re getting to the stage where it’s vital. You can also try to encourage your IT-staff to spread their holidays over the year and travel during the winter.

Gold Medal for phishing

If you offered athletes a chance to win a gold medal by clicking a link, there’s a strong chance that some of them would do it. Similarly, if you offered everyone interested in seeing the Olympics (rumoured to be over a billion people) a chance to see an event, travel to London, meet a famous track star or any kind of promotion, some of them would click. And submit their details. And that’s how you get a gold medal for “phishing”, the act of using computers to steal people’s data.

Be on the lookout for unexpected Olympics emails this summer – if an offer seems too good to be true, the chances are it is.

If an offer is too good to be true, chances are it is

Don’t limit your vigilance to London 2012, either. Be wary of any major event that could lure people in. Get an email offering you the chance to meet Batman if you fill in your details? It’s probably fake – and not just because Batman isn’t real.

BMW owners – be on the alert

Are you planning to leae your new BMW at home while you go on holiday? Make sure you put it in a garage, as there has been a huge spike in the number of key-fob activated BMWs that are being stolen.

Hackers can now break into BMWs and use a blank key-fob (available at all good online auction websites) to activate the car and drive off – without the need for a key. In essence, the only thing that’s stopping someone taking your brand new car is whether they can break through your windows.