SHOULDER SURFING

 Shoulder surfing occurs when someone watches over your shoulder to nab valuable information such as your password, ATM PIN, or credit card number, as you key it into an electronic device. When the snoop uses your information for financial gain, the activity becomes identity theft.

A term used to describe a person that looks over another person's shoulder as they enter data into a computer or another device. Shoulder surfing could be used when you are entering your computer password, ATM pin, or credit card number. Criminals often use used this technique to gain access to your personal accounts or read personal information, such as e-mails.

In computer security, shoulder surfing is a type of social engineering technique used to obtain information such as personal identification numbers (PINs), passwords and other confidential data by looking over the victim's shoulder.

Shoulder Surfing and Identity Theft Over the Internet

Shoulder surfing is the thing that many people do when they see over your shoulder to find out what you’re typing on a keyboard. For instance, as soon as you go to an ATM machine and type in your PIN, anybody behind you could possibly see your fingers to observe what numbers you enter into. In case you are sitting at an Internet cafetg, anybody sitting down close to you may well be observing as you type a Web or e-mail password.

You don’t have any technique of figuring out whether or not the particular person seeing is capable of using your PIN or password, however don’t suppose they are unable to. Expert shoulder surfers can be extremely proficient at memorizing numbers easily, when you type them, and may also bear in mind long passwords, credit card numbers, and so on. On an intense form of shoulder surfing, the crook could possibly have a small camera built to capture your key strokes for later playback.


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