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Kenya’s Facebook users exposed to malicious attacks

Kenya , 02 Jul 2015

Kenya’s Facebook users exposed to malicious attacks

Over the past few weeks Facebook users in Kenya have noted to experiencing pornographic material being tagged on their accounts.

According to Kaspersky Lab most of the four million Kenyans on the popular social network do not take keen measures to secure their online accounts.

“Based on research undertaken by Kaspersky Lab, it seems that many users assume that their passwords are of no value to cyber criminals and as a result, as a method of convenience, many consumers tend to use one password for their online activities or accounts,” Bethwel Opil, channel sales manager for Kaspersky Lab said.

“Passwords are the ‘keys’ to the account holder's personal data, private lives, and even their money – and if stolen, will affect not only individual users but also their contacts,” he added.

Opil gave an example of compromised email accounts, which in the end leads to all the contacts in that account.

It also applies to compromised social media accounts that can post malicious links and tag all the accounts connected to it. Hackers can also harvest financial data making victims lose money, he said.

“While most organisations and companies in Kenya, are aware of the importance of passwords and have multiple passwords for all their accounts, this unfortunately is not true for consumers.

“Most consumers find no use for multiple passwords and prefer to use one password that is easy to remember for all their accounts,” Opil observed.

He urged all social media users to use complex passwords and make them different from all their accounts.

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