Majority of Web Users Unaware of Hacked Accounts, Says Commtouch

Security firm Commtouch’s (News - Alert) “The State of Hacked Accounts” report, which investigated Yahoo, Facebook, Gmail, Windows Live accounts, shows that about 62 percent of web users do not know how their account was compromised, and less than 31 percent noticed that their account was compromised.

Of those surveyed, 15 percent said that their account was compromised by clicking on a Facebook (News - Alert) link, while 15 percent blamed a public Wi-Fi or Internet terminal for the problem. Four percent think an email virus was the reason for the attack.

Of the accounts that were compromised, Yahoo webmail accounted for 27 percent and Facebook made up nearly 23 percent. Gmail represented 19 percent and Windows Live accounted for 15 percent of compromised accounts.

The study reveals that more than half (54 percent) of the compromised accounts were used by hackers to send spam and one in eight were used to send in fake distress email scams, asking friends and relatives to wire funds to a foreign country.

However, as per Commtouch’s report, when it came to recovering the account from the hackers control, nearly 23 percent did nothing. About 65 percent changed their passwords to fix the hacked accounts. And 31 percent ran antivirus software to address the problem.