There will be red faces at HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland) today, as British newspapers The Sun and Daily Mail report that the banking giant's chief executive has had his own bank account frozen after a thief stole thousands of pounds in cash.

41-year-old Andy Hornby, who is the boss of Britain's fourth largest bank and biggest mortgage lender and earns a £1,000,000 salary, was on holiday when bank staff told him that at least £7,000 had been robbed in one day from his personal account.

According to reports, security cameras are believed to have caught a man on film using stolen information to access the HBOS executive's personal account at an ATM machine. The identity thief is also said to have contacted a call centre to open an account.

It would be easy for rival banks to smirk at HBOS's misfortune, but the fact of the matter is that all of us need to be on our guard against identity theft and take appropriate steps to reduce the chances of our own identities being stolen, and wallets emptied. If it can happen to the guy who runs the bank, it could happen to any of us.

The experts in our labs have published some simple steps to reduce the chances of being phished, that all of us could do with reminding ourselves about from time to time.