IT expert urges people to ensure online passwords are more secure

Nigel Taylor, managing director of Taylor Made Computer Solutions in Fareham, said the data breach at Yahoo was a stark reminder that eliminating hacking is an ongoing challenge.

He said: ‘People take security for granted, but hackers find new ways to get into data all the time. Although this breach has only just come to light, people will lose confidence and head to other, more secure suppliers so this is really going to focus the attention of the industry and hopefully lead to a fundamental change in online security systems.’

His advice was to change online passwords to a strong password using upper and lower case letters as well as numbers.

‘Don’t change your password too frequently as you’ll easily forget it and a strong combination of letters and numbers is most reliable,’ he said.

He said the long-term solution was to abandon security questions and instead use mobile verification methods.