Social media users 'waking up' to dangers

People who use social media are beginning to take cyber security more seriously, new research has found

Social media users are flinally waking up to the dangers that exist online, new research suggests.

According to online security firm Eset, more than two-thirds (68 per cent) of UK social media users have taken steps to improve the privacy settings on their various accounts, including changing to a stronger password and not using the same password across multiple accounts.

Among a range of high-profile breaches, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey have both had social media accounts compromised this year.

Mark James, security specialist at Eset said: "The findings from our study show that UK social media users are finally waking up to the dangers that exist online, and the fact that there are people out there who are specifically looking to compromise their data.

"Data is the currency of the 21st century and cybercriminals are constantly looking at new ways to get their hands on it. However, as consumers become more privacy conscious, this becomes a more difficult job for hackers, which, in my opinion, can only be a good thing."

Three quarters of those surveyed said they believed privacy on social media was more important than popularity, while 81 per cent said they did not use passwords that were related to their personal lives, such as birthdays or anniversary dates.

The research also highlighted a divide between men and women, with women found to be alert to the importance of privacy - only 29 per cent had never taken steps to use different passwords on different accounts, compared to more than a third (36 per cent) of men.