While the recent news of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's e-mail account breach may be a bit of a shock, what is not surprising is the ease with which it was done. The "hacker" merely changed Palin's password using Yahoo!'s password recovery feature and the Alaskan governor's personal information available online, CNET.com reports.

Many people rely on the Internet to carry on personal relationships as well as financial and business affairs. Not nearly enough have sufficient password protection. A recent survey by consultancy Accenture showed that nearly half of the Internet users questioned use only one password for all their online accounts.

Researchers say the findings suggest that many users underestimate the threat of cyber crime. "The problem with repeating passwords is that a hacker who successfully breaks into one account then has an easy time guessing how to get into all the user's other accounts," Robert Dyson, a senior executive in Accenture's global security practice, tells the Associated Press.

Of the 800 people interviewed in the United States and United Kingdom by Accenture, only 7 percent of respondents change their passwords often, use password management software or use a fingerprint reader to access their computer or accounts.

The lack of care people put into keeping their accounts safe is distressing given the amount of fraud and identity theft that happens online. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center's (IC3) latest report on Internet crime, there were 206,884 complaint submissions in 2007, of which 90,008 were referred to law enforcement officials.

The vast majority of cases involved fraud through pet scams, check cashing scams and online dating scams. Phishing, spoofing and spam all increased in prevalence as well, IC3 says. Other illegal activity such as computer intrusions and child pornography also were on the complaints list.

The total dollar loss in 2007 due to these cases was $239.09 million — an all-time high.

According to IC3, the primary devices for fraud were e-mail (73.6 percent) and Web pages (32.7 percent).

In addition to direct attacks on personal accounts, data breaches remain another threat to consumers' security. The Washington Post reports of a recent study of 449 U.S. businesses, government agencies and universities by the Identity Theft Resource Center, which tallied 446 breaches involving 127 million consumer records in 2007.

As organizations continue to personalize services for their customers, more people end up sharing larger amounts of personal data online. "Personal information is the currency of crime, and malicious attackers are targeting it to make their cyber attacks and other scams more authentic, credible and successful, and to make a profit," Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of development for the Windows Core Operating System Division at Microsoft, says in a statement.

Microsoft's most recent Security Intelligence Report indicates a 300 percent increase in the number of Trojan downloaders and droppers — malicious code used to install files on users' systems — proving that malware continues to grow in popularity among hackers.

McAfee Avert Labs also predicts use of parasitic malware to grow by 20 percent this year.

Along with malware, McAfee's report foresees large-scale instant messaging (IM) worms to become more prevalent as more people use IM. Skype, which suffered its first batch of worms in 2007, has nearly a quarter billion users. "This threat could spawn millions of users and circle the globe in a matter of seconds," McAfee Avert Labs notes.

Lastly, blog spam is growing at a rapid pace and McAfee researchers see no slow-down for this year.

Whether or not all these predictions will come true is yet to be proven, but it is imperative to be prepared for attacks. To help consumers arm themselves, the Federal Bureau of Investigation offers advice on how to keep your laptop and home computer safe.

Laptop Safety
According to the FBI, there are more than 68,000 hot spots in the U.S. Hackers most commonly pose as legitimate-looking Wi-Fi networks with strong signals in known hot spot areas and wait for users to connect to them. Once users connect, all the sensitive information on their computers is open for data mining, supervisory special agent Donna Peterson says in a statement.

Another thing to keep in mind is that information flows both ways. While the hacker is taking information, the victim may unknowingly be downloading viruses, worms and other malware.

To help prevent Wi-Fi fiascos, ensure the network is secure before clicking on the connect button.

If you are traveling and must carry a laptop, try to bring only the information you need rather than having years-worth of information with you. If you are traveling for business and must connect back into your company network, first scan your laptop and other storage media for malicious software before connecting, advises the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (via ZDnet.co.uk).

Home Computer Protection
Along with our previously published guide on how to prevent attacks on your home computer, the FBI offers these protection suggestions:

• Keep your firewall turned on;

• Install and continually update anti-virus software;

• Install and continually update anti-spyware technology, but beware of Internet ads offering downloadable anti-spyware as these may actually contain spyware;

• Keep your operating system up to date;

• Do not open e-mail attachments from unknown senders, and be wary of forwarded attachments from people you do know as they may unwittingly forward malicious code; and

• Always turn off your computer when you're done. This is especially important for those with high-speed Internet connections as that leaves you always "on" the Internet. Turning the computer off effectively severs your connection to potential attackers.

The FBI also posts updates on new scams and warnings and gives people the option to sign up for alerts when new scams are posted.

Earlier/Related: Prevent Computer Attacks at Home

Resources

Sarah Palin's E-Mail Hacked
by M.J. Stephey
Time, Sept. 17, 2008

Social Engineering Cracked Palin's E-mail Account
by Robert Vamosi
CNET.com, Sept. 18, 2008

Survey: Most Computer Users Repeat Passwords
by Jordan Robertson
The Associated Press, April 16, 2008

2007 Internet Crime Report
Internet Crime Complaint Center

Data Breaches Have Surpassed Level for All of '07, Report Finds
by Brian Krebs
The Washington Post, Aug. 26, 2008

Microsoft Research Reveals New Trends in Cybercrime
Microsoft Corp., Oct. 23, 2007

Microsoft Security Intelligence Report
Microsoft Corp., December 2007

Top 10 Threat Predictions for 2008
McAfee Avert Labs, Nov. 16, 2007

Wi-Fi Security
Federal Bureau of Investigation, May 6, 2008

Leaked Homeland Security Doc Warns of Data Threats
by Tom Espiner
ZDNet.co.uk, Sept. 15, 2008

How to Protect Your Computer
Federal Bureau of Investigation