More often than not, cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities that are well-known, according to the 2016 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report. And the compromise of business, employee and customer information can lead to identity theft. Important Statistics: 85 percent of attacks target known vulnerabilities. 80 percent are financially motivated. 63 percent of data breaches involve weak, stolen or default passwords. Ransomware attacks are up 16 percent from 2015 to 2016. Common Activities that expose you to the risk of identity theft: Using weak passwords. Always employ 'strong' passwords that contain numbers, symbols and characters. LastPass, an online and app password manager, offers a free service to generate complex passwords. Don’t use obvious passwords, such as your birthdate or names. Change passwords at least every three months and don’t use the same one for online banking that you use for shopping or social networking sites. Opening suspicious email attachments. Losing or not securing devices. Relying on simple login processes instead of more robust ones, such as two-factor authentication. Failing to encrypt data when appropriate.