According to the police, it is a regular thing that many people use numerals from their mobile number or a string of numbers like 1234 or 0000 as their password. Hackers can find out phone numbers through social media accounts or use simple guessing to find the password.

"It becomes a simple task for hackers to access your e-Wallets or ATM using this simple technique which we observed is being used by a majority of citizens and social media users. Thus, they can easily access contact details or private photos or other content of people," officials said, adding that over 60 per cent of users keep their contact numbers as usernames or passwords of their accounts.

With such techniques being opted by hackers to easily access personal details and then using the details to blackmail people, police are asking the people to use strong passwords, including special characters and a mix of letters, characters and numbers.

"Every user should keep a strong password with two-factor authentication, instead of a simple one which can easily be cracked by cybercriminals," the official said.

The official also suggested that all devices should be protected cryptographically and the firmware should be upgraded timely, for new security features to be updated.

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