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The internet has brought a lot of good things to make our lives better but it is also the root cause of many problems identity theft being the biggest one. According to Federal Trade commission, estimated 9 million Americans suffer identify theft every year. This implies that at-least one in every four people have been victim of identity theft. Companies lose millions of dollars annually both due to loss of money stolen through identity theft and in-terms of resources it has to incur like human capital, time and money to prevent such cases.

What is identity theft?
Identify theft as the name suggests occurs when someone steals your private information and uses this information to commit fraud or any other type of illegal transaction. The most common forms of information include the social security number and credit card number. These fraudsters can use credit card information to make payments or purchases, open fake accounts or even take a loan. If this happens to you, you will lose money in addition to your reputation and the huge amount of money you will need to clear your name and free yourself. Hence, knowing how you can protect yourself is important.

Protecting yourself from identity theft

Watch what you share online
The report by Federal Trade commission goes on to indicate that cases of online fraud have increased due to increased vulnerabilities of the victims. How much information about yourself do you share on social media? Information like your birthday, your mothers name or your hometown might seem harmless but if one of these answers is the answer to
your security questions, then you might fall victim of identity theft soon. Other than social media, online dating sites increase vulnerability since these criminals pose as innocent souls seeking love, if they find a way to convince you to share your personal details, you become their prey.

Ensure you have installed an antivirus in your computer
A common trend by fraudsters is to send emails with a malware as an attachment. If you click on the email, the malware gets to your computer and the fraudster gets complete control over your computer. Installing an antivirus helps scan and clean such emails. Also, keep the antivirus updated. Every time you login to a financial account, don’t let your PC remember the password and sign out as soon as you finish.

Create strong passwords
Your birthday, hometown, or boyfriend’s birthday can be cracked easily. Incorporate small letters, capital letters, numbers, special characters like underscore and spaces. In simple terms, don’t use a name in the dictionary as your password. Always clear your password when you are done.

Monitor bank account and credit report on a daily basis
Thieves are getting smarter. Instead of making a one off lump sum purchase, they prefer to spend little amounts like 20 dollars or less a day. This way the go undetected and don’t arouse suspicion with your bank. Some are even smarter, rather than use the credit card , they set up accounts in your name. You can prevent this from happening by setting up account monitoring through this site. If you don’t check your statements daily, you will give them an easy time spending your money. The best way to keep a close eye on your credit is using a free credit monitoring service.

Using WiFi to access the internet
Be careful when accessing your financial information using WiFi. If it it unsecured, simply avoid accessing your financial information and ensure you set up strong passwords for your home’s WiFi. Also, avoid opening suspicious links on your email, unless you know the sender, simply avoid them. Don’t be another statistic of identity theft. Protect yourself using these tips.

Richo Healey was riding his electric skateboard toward an intersection in Melbourne, Australia, last year when suddenly the board cold-stopped beneath him and tossed him to the street. He couldn’t control the board and couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Read more on WIRED.

Thieves can discover your personal and financial information very easily online. If you use mobile banking, access Wi-Fi in public places, or shop online, you are at risk of the famous identity theft. What can you do? Get credit monitoring. Use a reputable credit monitoring service to review your important credit report on a regular basis to find out any changes quickly and easily. You will be able to report your loses or fraudulent accounts immediately to credit bureaus. The 3 credit bureaus offer this service and you can also receive them through this site.

You can receive your credit report at no-cost here, hassle-free alternative monitoring your credit on a daily basis and notifying you via email if changes have been detected. You can also switch to EMV-enabled credit cards. These smart cards have stronger fraud protection than traditional credit cards. You will get a unique PIN and your card’s microchip will make it more difficult for thieves to get your identity. Fiserv in partnership with the U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Chase, and other credit unions has been introducing smart cards. So inquiring at your bank about smart cards is an important decision.

Phishing

Phishing is a thief’s attempt to get sensitive information about someone such as passwords, usernames and credit card details by pretending to be a trustworthy entity. Online attackers tend to build phishing kits selling them to other scammers who love to launch these information-stealing campaigns. Some of these kits only include two webpages. Attackers tend to buy these kits on visible websites or at underground forums. Some of them even know some PHP and can customize their sites in no time.

What do you do? You have to be careful when you click on links and verifying that links are pointing to the right address is important. For instance, if you are going to click on a link, mouse over the link before clicking on it to check whether the link is the same. Check for spelling and grammar errors in incoming emails. This can be a sign that the message is a phishing scam.

Hacking

Hacking is the act of breaking into a computer. To avoid being caught by a hacker, you need to take a proactive approach to computer security. Your are better off using your home wireless network than a public Wi-Fi hotspot as the latter is very popular and an easy target for hackers. If you need to access a Wi-Fi spot anyway, you are better off checking the name of the connection, as hackers tend to use names similar to a legitimate network waiting for you to log on to their fake network.

Using a password manager is another important step.1Password is a useful service you can use to store and create login information for tons of sites you can enter with just the press of a little button. If you are going to create the password yourself, make your password is long avoiding dictionary words. Including symbols and numbers is also paramount, and avoiding to write the password down is useful too. Fraud and cyber attacks are important aspects of cyber security, and you need to be prepared for them if you are going to use social media, Facebook, email and other things.

Here’s a quick summary of 7 tip to use online to stay safe:

1. Yes, you do want to install updates
2. Use antivirus software – but don’t bank on it
3. Keep your passwords unique
4. Use a password manager
5. Monitor your Credit
6. Use two-factor authentication
7. Monitor your online activity