Credit and financial services, products from every corner of the world,as well as access to a wealth of information is greater today than any other generation before us could ever have imagined. Due to the miracle that is the Internet, you can order books, clothes, or appliances online; reserve a hotel room across the ocean; download music and games; check your bank balance 24 hours a day; or access your workplace from thousands of miles away.
The downside to all this technology is that the Internet and the anonymity it affords, also can give online scammers, hackers, and identity thieves access to your computer, personal information, finances, and more. But with awareness as your safety net, you can minimize the chance of an Internet mishap. Being on guard online helps you protect your information, your computer, even yourself. To be safer and more secure online, adopt these seven practices.To an identity thief, your personal information can provide instant access to your financial accounts, your credit record, and other personal or family assets.
Unfortunately, when it comes to crimes like identity theft, you can't entirely control whether you will become a victim. By taking certain precautions you can help minimize your risk while you're online.
Do not feel so sure that no one would be interested in your personal information. The sad reality is that anyone can be a victim of identity theft. In fact, according to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) survey, there are almost 10 million victims a year. It's often difficult to know how thieves obtained their victims? personal information, and while it definitely can happen offline, some cases start when online data is stolen.
If you're asked for your personal information like your name, email or home address, phone number, account numbers, or Social Security number always find out how it's going to be used and how it will be protected before you share it. If you have children, teach them to not give out your last name, your home address, or your phone number on the Internet.
If the event you get an email or pop-up message asking for personal information, don't reply or click on the link in the message. The most secure course of action is not to respond to requests for your personal or financial information. If you think there may be a need for such information by a company with whom you have an account or placed an order, get in contact with that company directly in a way you know to be genuine. In any case, don't send your personal information via email because email is not a secure transmission method.
As far as shopping online goes, do not provide your personal or financial information through a company's website until you have thoroughly checked for indicators that the site is secure. Check to see if there are things like a lock icon on the browser's status bar or a website URL that begins ?https:? (the ?s? stands for ?secure?). Unfortunately, it is advisable to keep in mind that no indicator is foolproof as some scammers have forged security icons.
Carefully read website privacy policies. They should explain what personal information the website collects, how the information is used, and whether it is provided to third parties. The privacy policy also should tell you whether you have the right to see what information the website has about you and what security measures the company takes to protect your information. If you don't see a privacy policy or if you can't understand it, consider doing business elsewhere.
Certain terms that you may hear from time to time are important to remember. Remember that a hacker is a person who uses the Internet to access computers without permission. A spammer is someone who sends mass amounts of unsolicited commercial email and a virus is software that spreads from computer to computer and damages files or disrupts your system.
The Internet is an unlimited sea of information. The user can find information about virtually everything, tangible and intangible, on the web. But, in the cyber world, while users browse various resources for information, there are other unscrupulous blokes who secretly access the personal information of others without their knowledge. Such people who clandestinely breach into other's private space are technically termed as Hackers.
Hackers steal personal information of others using malicious programs called spy-wares. Spy-wares, after duping the user security, eves drop on the user computer and collect and send back their personal information stored in the computer back to the hacker. The hackers then use this information for misuse, which may range from minor offenses like corrupting messages on a home page to more serious crimes such as accessing bank accounts and forging user-ids and pins.
From a user point of view, it is difficult to track down a hacker or to realize when the hacking is even taken place. This is because the spy-wares usually make its way into the user PC stealthily such that even a good enough antivirus / antispyware may fail to take notice of the intrusion. As new versions of anti-spywares hit the market now and then, the latest spy-wares also update themselves to give the newer protection tools a miss. Mind you, software's are the products of superior brains, but in this case, they are available freely on both sides. In simple terms, Internet users can never have a complete assurance of security with any antispyware tools.
So what to do in order to protect your personal information from hackers? Well, the old saying ? prevention is better than cure ? is relevant in this context. By following some simple and easy to follow defensive steps, one can prevent one's personal information from hacking to a larger extent. For example, if you use a public computer,
?Never send any personal information nor store anything in the hard drive. Even if you are sending information to a secured site, there is the chance of getting the data hacked. Mind you, the site may be secured, but the computer you operate may not.
?Check the private policy of the public facility you are about to use to see if there is necessary precautions in place. If the facility lacks a private policy, assume that every key press is being logged ? by somebody ? and hence better keep off from sending/receiving any secret information.
?There are software's that can even hack data send through wireless enabled laptops. Even the aerial route is not safe, something you should keep in your thoughts.
If you are using your personal PC, in order to prevent malicious programs from entering it, never open unsolicited mails and attachments, keep off from strange sites ? sites with lot of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors ? and never ever open links sent to your mail box from people that you don't know. The site to which it leads may be a spy-ware storehouse.
To conclude, it is virtually impossible to provide fool proof security for something like the World Wide Web, which is accessed by millions from across the world. Therefore, it is the user's responsibility to take care of his/her PC - and hence personal information - from being eaves dropped by others.
Never ever let you drop your guard while browsing the internet. There are always spy-wares on the prowl looking for chinks in your armor. I hope that this article will help you to better protect your personal information from being hacked.
Both Paul Freitas & Keisha Seaton are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Paul Freitas has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Disease & illness and Fitness. Visit www.consumer.gov/idtheft to learn what to do if your identity is stolen. Additional information on . Paul Freitas's top article generates over 2400 views. to your Favourites.