Expert reveals how much damage hackers can do even with just 1 of your password

In many cases, hackers can easily guess the password if your password is made up of common clusters, for example 123456.

According to Mr. Moore, one of the biggest dangers is that users often have the habit of using the same password for many different accounts.

Therefore, if hackers know your email address and password for 1 account, they will try that password for other accounts as well.

Here are three common scenarios where hackers get hold of your password.

Email

The biggest damage will happen if hackers get hold of your email password, because email access can be the gateway to access some other platform.

“Email is the most worrying account when it comes to losing control, because if this is compromised, a hacker can simply access all your other online accounts,” said Mr. Moore . They can use this email address to search as username (username) on different platforms and then click Forgot Password”.

“A link will be sent directly to the email that the hackers are holding so they can change the password to whatever they want,” the expert warned.

Email accounts like Gmail also have a large amount of personal information stored, so hackers can use them to impersonate you, such as your date of birth, phone number, even your home address.

Your passwords on other websites may also be stored in your Google account, which can be accessed by logging into Gmail.

“If hackers gain access to your Gmail, they can also gain access to connected Google accounts,” Moore said.

Social network

Your Twitter account typically includes your phone number, email address, and more, possibly including your date of birth and payment information if you’re signed up for Twitter Blue.

With your Twitter password in hand, hackers can modify your account to impersonate someone else. A lot depends on whether you have two-factor authentication (2FA) security standard set up on your account.

A two-factor authentication (2FA) system sends an SMS message containing a code to the user’s phone for them to use the code to access their account. This method is seen as an extra layer of security for your account.

Billionaire Elon Musk recently removed the two-factor authentication system from the free version of Twitter and made it a proprietary mechanism, only available on Twitter Blue. However, Mr. Moore said this was a ludicrous decision, and would likely result in “a lot of accounts being hacked”.

Meanwhile, if hackers have your Facebook password, their next action will usually be to share spam and phishing links to some of your friends/relatives, compromising your account. Again.

Although criminals often use fake accounts to conduct fraud, they are increasingly preferring to break into legitimate accounts to perform their acts.

Online Shopping

Mr. Moore said some online supermarket applications will store customers’ personal information, and this information is only protected by a password.

Once they get into an online shopping app, hackers can change the address on your shopping account and use your payment information to place orders for delivery.

“Supermarket apps often store a lot of data about you, from your phone number to your home address,” Mr. Moore said.

However, a bigger risk is that hackers can learn your personal information and then sell it on the dark web.

The dark web is only accessible by special browsers, so for criminals it is an ideal place for their illegal activities.