 |
|
The source of the best business, financial and legal news |
|
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
 | |
| |
 |
Business Informations |
|
|
|
Simple Identity Theft Protection
How many of you bank, shop, or transact other business online? There are at least 4 million Department pf Defense employees that access their pay records online only. Even offline, stored financial data can be placed at risk in computers that are used on the Internet as well. As one of the fastest growing crimes in America, identity theft is a concern for everyone. A criminal gaining access to your bank or credit card accounts or personal information can wreak havoc with your credit and leave you holding the bag. Protecting your personal data at home and online is not too painful and lowering your risk for a reasonable effort level is well worth it. Before we tackle the computer and online environment, let's take a quick look at your other home risks. Your garbage can and mail box are prime targets for identity thieves. Bills, old checks, financial statements, credit offers, the list goes on. All of these documents need to be shredded with a crosscut shredder before discarding and mail should never be left in the mail box for long. Arrange for someone to pickup mail if you are going to gone from your home for more than a day. In short, anything with your full name combined with any other sensitive information should be shredded before discarding. Phishing and social engineering are methods to get you to divulge your data to a criminal by making you believe the criminal represents an organization or interest with access or rights to your information. Any phone call you receive from someone requesting your personal information or credit card numbers should be suspect. Request a way to call them back via the organization's published numbers and verify the number is associated with the organization before proceeding. Suspect good deals that come to you out of the blue via the telephone or any other method. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Now for your computer, there are a few things you should do here. Your online activities pose the greatest risk. You need a hardware, or good software firewall. You need good Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware software. The software versions will need regular updates to keep ahead of the hackers out there. You also need to take some precautions with your own personal online and offline habits. Online, you should use different, complex passwords for each identity related account you access. You should set your browser security settings as high as possible for general surfing and avoid clicking advertising links from unknown vendors, or links in emails that come from unknown senders or are out of character for the known sender. Never follow links sent via email purporting to be from your creditors or financial institutions asking you to validate your account information. Call them instead, if you believe it is valid. Most financial or credit organizations will never send you an email unless you have asked to receive account updates. The last thing you need to be aware of online is who you are doing business with. Be careful about providing your credit card numbers online. While ensuring the site is secure is absolutely the bare minimum, ensuring the vendor is honest and keeps your data secure is necessary too. Offline, you should secure any financial, health, insurance, or other documents containing your personal information by using encryption and password protection. Most financial software packages have this feature built in. Use it as well as Windows encrypted folders to make your private data secure from undetected Spyware, or short term physical access to your computer by a criminal. Don't use Windows auto-logon features and always use complex passwords that are at least eight characters long, contain numbers, letters, and both upper and lower case. Never use a common word, name, or other easily guessed password. Something like T8$f~lly can be easy to remember, though very hard to guess and extremely time consuming to hack. Finally, change all of your passwords frequently and use a secure password manager to keep them organized. The last thing you need to do is monitor your accounts and credit. Keep on eye on your financial account activities and your credit record. If you notice something amiss, call the financial organization or credit reporting agency and report it, change your passwords and pat yourself on the back for catching it early. My own Yahoo account was recently compromised. While this wasn't a costly identity theft situation, it did put my name on some rather unsavory low-level spam operations. A password change was all that was needed to shut down the activity. Follow the directions I've provided and you will lower your risk of identity theft and fraud related debts to almost zero. Keep in mind that if you have Bill Gate's level of assets, you are in a different class of high risk targets and should hire a security team to manage those risks and lower your insurance rates. You can also call me and I'd be happy to help you put that together. ;-) Lyle Sharp - President Advotech, LLC
MORE RESOURCES:
credit - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How To Avoid Becoming A Victim of Identity Theft With identity theft statistics currently at an all time high, and climbing, it just makes sense that we should all be doing everything we can to protect ourselves.One of the most prevalent yet overlooked ways your personal information and passwords may be being compromised is through the presence of Spyware on your computer. Identity Theft - Who Would Want Mine? With all my bills who would possibly want my credit? Let them steal my identity and pay my bills! Unfortunately, that's not the way it works. Many of us mistakenly believe that identity thieves hit only the wealthy. Defeating Credit Card Debt With Self Control Credit card debt is a major social problem in some Western countries. To rid yourself of credit card debt, it is best to recognize the problem as both a social and individual problem. How Healthy Is Your Credit There's only one way to discover the "health" of your credit. You need to examine your credit report. SuperCharged Secret 1 of 5 - Credit Card Utopia I AM THE CONSUMER. AND I HAVE LOW-RATE SUPER-POWERS!Note: The following is part 1 of a 5 part series. Credit Cards, Merchant Accounts, and Your Bottomline Q: I'm opening a gift shop and want to be able to accept credit cards. I talked to the branch manager at my bank, but he didn't seem to know much about how it all worked. SuperCharged Secret 2, Credit Card Utopia INTEREST BEWARE, THERE'S SAFETY IN NUMBERS!Note: The following is part 2 of a 5 part series, Over the course of these 5 articles, I am going to introduce you to several methods for maximizing the use and benefits of the best Credit Cards and offers on the market today. This information, when used in conjunction with one another, is unlike anything you've ever seen before. What is on Your Credit Report? Your credit report is a very important piece of the puzzle in your financial picture. It contains a historical record of your personal and financial information including a listing of your current and past debts and the timeliness of your payments. Is it Safe to Use Online Car Finance? Online car finance is convenient. You can apply over the net and shop around for a good deal from the comfort of your home. Credit Cards: Pros and Cons Sure, there are a lot of problems with credit cards, but there are a lot of good things attached to them as well. For instance, if you have a small business, fleet credit cards can keep your books in order when you issue them to drivers of company vehicles for gas and automobile repairs. Your Credit Rating and How To Check It There is a lot of confusion surrounding UK credit ratings, credit scores, credit blacklists, credit reports, and credit files. This guide to your credit rating aims to give you the facts you need. Like It Or Not, You Have A Score To Settle! Like It Or Not, You Have A Score To Settle! (Part 1 of 2 on Credit Scoring)Just when most people finish with school and can stop worrying about test scores, there's a new kind of scoring that enters the picture. It's called credit scoring. Can You Acquire Good Credit Overnight? You Bet Your credit file may not reflect all your credit accounts. Although most national department store and all-purpose bank credit card accounts will be included in your file, not all creditors supply information to credit bureaus : Some travel, entertainment, gasoline card companies, local retailers, and credit unions are among those creditors that don't. What You Didnt Know About Your Credit Card Numbers Have you ever really looked at your credit card and tried to figure out what that huge string of numbers really means? Do these card issuers have so many customers that your account number has to be 16 digits long?You may be surprised to know that all those numbers you see actually do stand for something, and it's not just who you are. Let's take a look. What is a Bad Credit History? A bad credit history can sometimes seem like a curse.. My Credit Card Application Was Rejected! Now What?!? No doubt, you've probably gotten literally hundreds of credit card applications in the mail and online, and each and every one of them has said that you've been "Pre-Approved".Of course it's natural that this would lead us to believe that the application process is simply a formality. SuperCharged Secret 3, Credit Card Utopia TURBO-CHARGED KILLER RATE SAVING INFORMATION!Let's just take a brief moment to recap:If you've been following along on this journey with me, learning the 5 Super-Charged secrets to Credit Card Utopia, then you now know 2 very important things:You now know how to take advantage of zero to low interest credit card offers.You now know that there is safety in numbers, and you know the magic "Who's Who" of the major credit card companies. Bankruptcy vs. Credit Counseling: What Should I Do? Credit Counseling and bankruptcy are both ways to relieve the stress of debt. However, they are very different and it is important to understand both before making a decision as to which is best for you. To Repair Credit Is No longer Satisfactory - Learn How To Earn A Millionaires Credit In 30 Days... To repair your bad credit does not necessarily mean that you now have a good credit, absolutely not. When most people have bad credit, they either purchase a credit repair book or seek a credit expert help. Will Inquiries Lower Your Credit Score? What are inquiries?When you apply for credit the creditor or lender checks your credit report to verify that you qualify for the credit or loan you are applying for. The "inquiry" is then reported to the credit bureaus and shows up on your credit report.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
||||
|
