3 Tips to Prevent Identity Theft

With data breaches happening every day, it’s best to take measures to protect your personal and business information as much as possible.

FREEZE YOUR CREDIT REPORTS. Placing a “freeze” on your credit reports is your best start to preventing identity theft. Placing a freeze on your accounts will prevent anyone from opening credit under your name. The freeze will not affect your credit score; however, if you plan to apply for a loan, rental property or other credit, you will have to lift the freeze.

In addition to a credit freeze, there are other things you should look into in order to protect yourself against fraud and account takeover.

1) Don’t depend on a website’s security methods to protect you.

You might think most websites are secure, but even those that seem to be secure have very lax password reset procedures. Skilled hackers can easily exploit those procedures.

For example, even PayPal is behind on strong security procedures and lacks modern authentication methods. Cybersecurity expert, Brian Krebs, had a hacked PayPal account and it was very difficult for him to get control of his account due to PayPal’s weak security. His story just proves that even when you think a site may have the best security, there’s a big chance it’s not as secure as you think.

To protect yourself, use strong and unique passwords for your most secure accounts and activate two-factor authentication to your cell phone. It adds an extra layer of security, so that you get a code to your cell phone when you log into your account. When two-factor authentication is activated, if anyone else tried to log into your account, they would need more than your password. They would need the code sent to your cell phone.

2) Contact your bank and see how they can add further security.

For your business, you may want to consider using a Positive Pay system. With Positive Pay, you give your bank a list of checks that you plan to write. The bank will only honor the checks on that list. If they receive a check that isn’t on the list, they will refuse to honor it.

You can also implement a second authentication method that does not involve a computer when doing wire transfers. When there is a wire transfer request, the person who receives it should pick up the phone and verify with the person who made the request.

There have been many times when cyber criminals have emailed companies wire transfer requests and tricked the finance department into thinking the request came from the CEO, costing the company thousands of dollars. Financial loss could be avoided by simply picking up the phone and verifying with the person who made the wire transfer request.

This business email scam has grown so much recently that the FBI published an article to update people on what to look out for and how to protect themselves.

3) Avoid using a Windows PC for secure transactions.

A PC used for general Internet access is not a secure platform. Booting up a secure environment will prevent your banking access credentials from theft. Consider using a computer strictly for banking and turn it off when not in use.