Ways to protect personal data from online fraud

In this digital age, it’s becoming increasingly hard not to share your personal data, such as passwords, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, etc online because even if you prefer Paper and Phone when performing transactions, most companies prefer doing everything online for financial reasons. Unfortunately, some companies do not put in place the necessary stringent policies and procedures needed for your personal data to be secure.

Moreover, for those of us who prefer not to make an online transactions, find it increasingly irresistible to avoid the convenience and lucrative deals that the whole online world has to offer to us.

Following are a few ways to protect personal data from online fraud which you can look out for while undertaking the online deals in future and feel secure...

Disclaimer: While these tips are intended to make the online transactions secure they offer no guarantee that following them will make them 100% secure.
1. Keep your personal and sensitive data off your computer - What can a virus or spyware program possible to with your personal data if you don’t store it on your computer? It’s simple and very effective. Try your best to keep bank account numbers, passwords, etc off your computer. If you want to keep it in electronic format for easy access, that’s fine, simply buy a flash drive and store all the sensitive files there. Keep it in a safe place and if you need to refer to the documents, then just plug in your drive. Lots of people tend to leave their computers on for long periods of time and it can be compromised at any time, so if there is no data to steal, then you’ve already done a lot to prevent data theft! If you REALLY want it on your computer, then at least make sure you encrypt it.

2. Avoid saving credit card info, etc on shopping sites - Many web sites today, such as eBay, give you the option to save your credit card info so that you don’t have to type in all the information each time you want to buy something. That’s great for them, easy money and more sales, but what about you? What if someone eventually does hack into their database (and don’t worry many people are trying everyday) and downloads thousands of credit card numbers, bank account numbers, etc? It might take an extra minute, but it’s better to not save your info on any shopping site.

3. Do not use the same password for every last thing on the Internet - Yes we all hate passwords, but hackers love people who don’t use passwords or who use passwords like “john” or “joe”. You don’t have to keep a different password for EVERY site, that would be crazy, but definitely not just one. These days just about everyone has numerous online accounts and so if a hacker figures out one password, they’ll go ahead and try to see if it works on any other site. Make sure passwords are different a more complicated. Just throwing in a number or symbol at the end will make it hundreds of times hard for a person to crack your password!

4. Always think before providing information when solicited - If you ever get an email that has a link in it that requires ANY personal information, make sure you go to the web site yourself manually by typing in the address. Half the time links in emails point to fake addresses with very close names. Also, at times you will be bombarded by scams from Nigeria, etc that sound way too good to be true (like someone would actually pay more for your item than what you listed it at)!!! And just because a web site exists does not mean it it legitimate! If you’ve never heard of the site before, just type it into Google once and see if anything like “XXX IS A SCAM” pops up!

5. Clear your browser’s cache after an online transaction - Sometimes your browser will save certain information you typed into forms, etc when you are online, so it’s always good to clear that after you’re done. Also, if you get that message sometimes from your browser asking you whether you want it to automatically save your passwords, etc, click NO. It’s another small pain, but it might help you one day!

6. Turn your computer off or on standby when you’re not using it - This might sound low-tech and it is, but it’s really effective. This is kind of like the first tip, if your computer is not on, then what can a hacker, virus, or anything else possibly do? Nothing! So if you have a desktop at home, make sure you turn it off or put your laptop into sleep mode when you’re not there. Why open it to attack if you’re not even using the computer?

7. Make sure the URL has an HTTPS instead of HTTP - The S makes all the difference! You’ll notice that when you buy something from Amazon or another big site, once you being to checkout, the URL always starts with a HTTPS. This means that the communication between your computer and their server is secure and encrypted. If someone tries to read the data as it travels across the Internet, they won’t be able to understand or decipher it. If you’re buying something from a smaller site and they don’t have HTTPS, just call them and buy it. Not worth risking data passing unencrypted over the net.

8. Use a secure Internet browser when you are online - Firefox is considered more secure than IE and that’s what a number of sites also have tested. Personally, I use Firefox and you should consider it if you’re using IE 7. IE 7 has more security features than ever before, but it still has lots of holes also. Using a more secure browser can help protect against browser hijacking, etc. Anyway, most viruses are written for IE since it’s more common, so it’s more likely to be hacked.

9. Lock your computer at home and at the office - This is another one of those tips that most people don’t think about, especially at your office. If you leave for lunch and your computer is just on without a password-protected screen saver, what will stop a snoopy co-worker to get onto your computer and look through your My Documents, etc? It may not seem likely, but it can very well happen and it’s better to press CNTRL-ALT-DELTE and press Lock Computer or put a password on your screen saver than have some co-worker copy your tax returns from last year!

10. Be careful who you give your computer to when it needs fixing - Unfortunately, if you’re not a tech person, you probably have to hand over your computer to someone else when something goes wrong. I’ve done a lot of computer fixing and one thing I’ve noticed is how ridiculously easy it would be for me to download ALL of their personal information to my external hard drive or flash drive. People simply trust technical support people too much. If someone is going to fix your computer, have then come over to your house and just watch as they do it. When you’re off in another room while they fix your computer, they can also be copying your entire hard drive for themselves.

11. Use advanced techniques like encryption, anonymous browsing, virtualization software, etc - Lastly, if you really want to do more than just the usual, you can encrypt your data, browse the Internet anonymously, or run IE or Firefox in a virtual environment. The advantage of the latter is that you can actually catch a virus or spyware program in the virtual environment and it won’t affect your operating system at all. You can read more by searching “virtualization software” in Google.