Page 44 - Cyber Safety C-6

“When your mother does online banking, after entering the password for money
transfer, she receives an OTP on her mobile. The transaction completes only
after she enters the OTP. This is Two factor Authentication (2FA) in action.”

21 st #Critical Thinking
Century
Skills #Technology Literacy
THE RISK OF WEAK PASSWORDS AND SKIPPING 2FA
Mehul, studying in Pune, joined an online chess tournament hosted on a popular gaming website. To
register quickly, he reused his old password: “Mehul2000” — which was his name plus his birth year.
The website suggested enabling Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), but Mehul skipped it, thinking it
was unnecessary.

During the second round, a pop-up appeared on the screen:
“Verify your account to continue playing. Enter your login password again.”

Without checking the website address, Mehul entered his password.
The next morning, he found he was logged out of all his accounts — email, game and school portal.
His friends received strange messages from “him,” asking for personal details and game coins. Even
his saved photos disappeared from his cloud account.

When Mehul and his father checked the browser history, they realised he had entered his password
into a fake website that looked identical to the real platform. Since he used the same weak password
everywhere and ignored MFA, the hacker gained complete access to all his accounts.

Based on the above case, answer the following questions:
1. Identify the pop-up that appeared during the tournament.

(i) A game update (ii) A real security warning

(iii) A fake website asking for his password (iv) A new message from a friend
2. Determine why the hacker was able to access all his accounts.

(i) Mehul used different passwords
(ii) Mehul used the same weak password everywhere

(iii) Mehul logged out safely
(iv) Mehul used a Chromebook

3. If you were Mehul’s cyber safety advisor, list any three actions he should take immediately to
secure his accounts again.

42 Computer Science - VI