British putting themselves at risk online

The British are still putting themselves at risk online by failing to adequately protect their accounts, according to Moneysupermarket.com.

In a survey of 2,088 people the price comparison site found almost a fifth of people (18 per cent) used the same password to log into an average of seven internet services.

Only 12 per cent of people used the recommended secure mix of numbers, capitals and lower-case letters when creating their passwords. This fell to nine per cent for those in their 60s and eight per cent for those over 70. Of the third (30 per cent) of people that subscribed to 10 or more sites, including internet banking and online shopping, 18 per cent continually used the same password.

James Parker, broadband manager at Moneysupermarket.com, said: "It’s hard to think of anything that can’t be done online these days. People are signed up to dozens of services, many of which hold personal information such as bank, credit card and address details.

“It's crucial people take proper precautions to protect themselves from security threats such as phishing emails and malware, those that don't are leaving the door wide open to online thieves and hackers."

He recommended people use a mixture of numbers, upper-case and lower-case letters in passwords, never write passwords down and always uncheck the 'remember me' option on public computers.