Social media is data goldmine for hackers

Hyderabad: Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and others, apart from some mobile applications like Truecaller, are becoming tools to mine personal data, that’s  available in the public domain.

According to statistics released by US Federal Trade Commission, about 9.2 million netizens have fallen victim to cyber criminals who stole their personal data. The report said that every minute, about 19 people fall victim to identity theft.

Cyber crime consultant for AP and TS police  and CEO of Cytech Labs, Saneep Mudalkar, said tiny oversights done by netizens lead to identity and personal data theft.

“The theft of identity is being done by cyber criminals in both online and offline modes. Social media has become a boon for cyber criminals who are trying to steal personal data. Lucky draws at malls and petrol bunks, feedback forms at restaurants, phone banking fraudsters etc., are the sources of personal data theft offline,” he said.

The intention behind most of the attacks on government websites was for stealing identity. “So far in Telangana state, a few websites have been hacked and among them was the MeeSeva platform. It was suspected that criminals stole personal data of users. Now, all the departments are seeding citizens’ information with Aadhaar. If they do not focus on cyber security, there may be chances of severe hacker attacks,” he said.

In AP, too, the government is seeding Aadhaar details with several departments coming under its Pulse Survey. “Hackers create phishing sites for banking, travelling and e-commerce websites to steal personal information,” he said.

Cyber crime experts are advising netizens to follow precautions while dealing with social media. Every website provides security features but most netizens avoid it, experts said.