Is it possible for your Demat Account to be hacked

Anything that is connected in a network can be hacked. The internet is a network. You trade using your trading account and demat account when you are connected to the internet. So the answer is clearly Yes. Your demat account can be hacked. Recently, a number of trading and demat accounts were hacked at a top discount broker in India.

Hacking means someone accessing your online account without having any authority to do so from your side. Unethical hackers try to get access to online accounts such as trading and demat accounts because they can steal money and other assets from such accounts. Even the personal data that is stored in your trading and demat account, such as your name, age, trades you have done etc. are of value to these hackers. They can sell this data to gain money for themselves.

Due to the hacking risk related to your demat and trading account, it is important that you choose the right broker. The right broker in this case is one who has invested sufficiently in ensuring that trading and demat accounts of its customers are protected from unethical hacks. Such a broker will have measures in place to ensure that any data or information pertaining to your account is not shared with any third party without your explicit consent.

IIFL Securities is one such broker that has invested heavily in ensuring that trading and demat accounts of its customers remain safe from unethical hacks. IT systems at IIFL Securities are continuously upgraded from the perspective of security, as new security threats emerge.

As a trading & demat account holder it is also your responsibility to take reasonable steps to ensure that hackers do not get access to your accounts because of some oversight on your part. In some instances of hacking of demat and trading accounts, in the past, it was found that the owners of these accounts, themselves, had inadvertently shared their username and password with third parties. These third parties then used this information for hacking into their accounts.

Another reason for hacks that has come out with some frequency, in the case of demat and trading accounts, is the email provider that the user is using. Some email providers such as Gmail have been found to be more secure while others have been found to be less secure.