In a society where credit means everything and more banking is done online than in person, people have more reason than ever to worry about their identity and to take steps to protect themselves from hackers and cybercriminals. The best things that can be done are sometimes the simplest and are often habits that you need to learn. In order to protect your financial well-being the well-being of those you care about the most, you need to start taking action now.
Here are a few tips you need to know to keep your identity safe:
Keep Everything Secret
There is no reason for anyone else (except your spouse, if you are married) to know anything about the specifics of your financial life. They don’t even need to know how many accounts you have or whether or not you have investments at all. If they know, people might be tempted or mention such information in passing to a less moral individual. Think of it as leaving a window open when you leave the house.
In addition to this, a lot of identity theft is done by people who are close to the victim, taking advantage of their access to the individual. You do not want those people to have access to your information or any details in case they decide to turn against you or become desperate. It is for this reason also that you should avoid making your passwords and security question answers anything other than something you and only you know.
Use a VPN
One of the best tools you can possibly have to protect yourself is a Virtual Private Network (VPN). What a VPN will do is connect your device (it works on smartphones) to an offsite secure server via a high-level encrypted connection. Anything you request will be handled by the server and sent to you. Think of it as a tunnel no one else can enter. It also has the benefit of masking your IP, so no one can track your financial movements, and allowing you to bypass any government censorship if it applies to you.
This security is immensely useful when dealing with public networks, otherwise there is an immense risk to your financial data as anything sent over an unprotected public network could be intercepted without the encryption. This means that you could safely check any market data or any accounts you need to with peace of mind regardless of where you are.
Learn How Hackers Work
While you don’t need to learn how to code or know how networks work in detail (although they are useful skills to have), you should be aware of the different types of threats out there and how they might affect your computer and work their way in.
Malware comes in many different forms and is constantly evolving. Some malware tries to get onto your computer via a cookie or something you innocently download, and then it sends everything on your computer to a hacker or criminal organization. Ransomware will act as if it is the cure on your computer when in fact it is the disease, locking up your system until you pay the creators for your computer’s release. Other malware will act randomly, just messing up files or other data (potentially important financial data) until it is removed. Unfortunately, the possibilities are endless.
Actual human hackers might try a few different methods. Some might try to intercept your data while using an unsecure network. Others will try to get a little bit of data off of you and try to worm their way into an account with an unsecure password. Others will use a program to try millions of password combinations until the program cracks it. Finally, some will take data used by malware or other illegally obtained data (perhaps a website with your info was hacked) and use that to get more or outright steal your identity. There are other variations, but those are the ones you need to worry about the most.
Know the Simple Things
While this will be repeated in article after article, it cannot be said enough: know the basics of internet security. This means using a password that is better than “password” and having an internet security suite installed. It also means to not use dangerous websites with the aim of saving five dollars on a new toy. Your financial identity is not worth taking such risks over, and you will lose a lot more in time in the long run when you have to deal with the consequences.
Some other things you should know about are the importance of your email account and being aware that it is tied to just about everything you do online. You also need to remember the importance of updating your operating system and security software, and the dangers of torrenting without educating yourself on the subject first. Most importantly, you just need to use common sense when using the internet.
