Cyber cafes may turn out to be fertile data mining grounds for fraudsters owning to the care free attitude exhibited by users.
Some internet users accessing their accounts in cyber cafes are inadvertently exposing themselves to people who may use their sites for criminal activities by failing to sign off after accessing their accounts.
Internet users in Machakos County admitted that at times they leave email accounts unsigned out and social media sites active yet they were technically offline.
Administrators in various cyber cafes in the region admit that they witness clients filling in bank details and returns which can potentially be used by fraudsters to drain their accounts.
The popular log in sites where much of the abandon has been witnessed includes Facebook, Twitter, Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and email account such as Gmail and Yahoo mail.
However, Yahoo detects the client’s departure from the site and automatically logs itself out but majority of the clients do not seem to decipher the potential threats of cyber security lapses.
At a personal level, according to a technology expert, James Muchemi, one should regularly change their email passwords.
Gmail advocates one to key in a strong email password that is not easy to guess.
Hackers try obvious passwords such as user’s phone number and names among others.
Muchemi says the same should apply to mobile phone money transfer and bank accounts although they are more secure compared to online surfing sites due to being cryptic.
“You do not want to take chances. Who knows, the hacker may just be looking over your shoulders as you type away your account details,” says Muchemi.