3 Ways You Unwittingly Let Identity Thieves at Your Data
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Even with antivirus, spyware software and a excellent firewall, you can still be simple prey for cyber criminals and hackers. Read on to find out how YOU are giving online criminals simple access to your personal and financial information.
You reckon you have done all the right things. You’ve installed a excellent firewall, you keep your antivirus up to date, and you’re making sure you keep up with the latest security patches… so your computer network should be protected from identity thieves, right?
Incorrect!
According to a recent study, 37% of electronic identity theft incidents had one thing in common: they were caused by an action taken by the user. That’s right, more than a third of identity thefts were not thefts, but giveaways!
So how do you prevent this from happening to you and your employees?
No one is 100% safe, but the following 3 tips will stop you from accidentally handing online criminals access to your computer network and confidential information:
1. Never visit or download free music files, videos or programs from file-sharing sites such as Kazaa. Not only are you downloading stolen materials, but these sites are surefire ways to introduce worms and viruses to your computer. If you are a business owner, set up web filtering software to prevent employees from downloading any unauthorized programs or files.
2. Never respond to any e-mail from a bank, credit card company, PayPal or online store where items are bought (such as eBay) asking you to verify your account information, no matter how credible or legitimate it looks. These are phishing scams set up to access your account information.
3. Be sure to question for ID from anyone requesting physical access to your equipment, and instruct your employees to do so as well. Just to test a theory, I questioned a friend to walk into an office, say they are from “the phone company” responding to a problem, and question to see the network. Access was granted to a complete weirder 100% of the time.
Informing your company’s employees is usually the responsibility of an IT management department or external IT consultant. Contact a IT managed services or corporate computer services firm if you have cyber theft concerns for your business.
Tags: cyber crime, cyber criminals, identity theft, online security, password theft, web security
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