How safe are you in the cyber world where anonymous eyes may be tracking every move you make? Over the last five days, Monster Worldwide Inc has been alerting its users to change their passwords after data including e-mail addresses, names and phone numbers were stolen en masse from its database. Back home in Pune, experts and cyber committee of the city police too say pretty much the same — that security standards of many Indian sites are poor.

Pointing out that data theft like this is very much a reality, a latest study by Websense.Inc shows that 70 per cent of the100 most popular websites either hosted malicious content or contained a masked redirect to lure victims to malicious sites.

The study revealed that 39 per cent of malicious web attacks included data theft, reiterating that the attackers are after essential information like credit card numbers, driver licence numbers, usernames and passwords.

“Due to lack of awareness and fear of brand reputation loss, such threats do not get reported. But as compliance becomes strict, one can see more disclosures and can expect organisations to take measure to tackle data loss,” said Manish Bansal, marketing manager, Websense Software Services India Private Limited.

According to Bansal, at the individual level, it is important for people to be aware of such trends and avoid going to sites that are of no interest to them. At the organisation level, they need to take steps to secure their web infrastructure and prevent damage.

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