how to stop identity theft crimes online

Say No to Identity Theft - Things to Look Out For to Prevent Identity Theft Crimes
By Tina L Douglas

It cannot be stressed enough how important is vigilance in the your drive towards evading identity theft. Constant vigilance is the key in reducing the risk of you becoming prey to these criminals. You can't rely on luck nor can you rely on skills.

Read+Share How to Prevent Identity Theft by Discovering the hackers behind Phishing e-mails and phone calls.

But what should we be vigilant about? Here are some points that need your constant vigilance:

Your Credit Reports.

You need to constantly monitor your credit report from all three credit bureaus. The law provides that each individual consumer can request for one free credit card report every year. As these reports are updated quarterly, you have to request for your credit reporting in between then. What you can do is to request one credit report from one bureau, and after four months, request another from another bureau until you have requested one copy from each credit agency after every four months. This will allow you to monitor your credit report thrice a year, as compared to other consumers who do so only once. If something fishy happens with your credit report or if there are unauthorized entries in your credit report, you will be able to detect it immediately as compared to people who have to wait for the following year to request for another copy of their credit report.

If in any case your identity is stolen and the identity theft criminal has contacted various firms to apply for a loan, these firms will definitely run a credit check on you. Their names then would be reflected in your credit report, as firms that are performing background checks on you. If you monitor your credit report closely, you will immediately detect if another person is inquiring in your behalf so you can immediately put a stop to it.

If you are a military personnel and you need to go out of the country for a long period, place a fraud alert or a security freeze on your social security number with any of the credit card bureau. This will ensure that no new credit cards will be opened while you are gone as well no new loans, mortgages, and even jobs will be applied for under your name.

Read+Share How to Prevent Identity Theft by Discovering the hackers behind Phishing e-mails and phone calls.

 
Your Credit Card Statement.

You also need to closely monitor your credit card statement. You have to first know at what time of the month does it usually arrive and it should arrive at approximately the same time every month that will follow. This will ensure that your credit card statement is being sent to you directly and no one is taking a peek at it before you do. Other than that fact, you should also keep the receipts that you incurred whenever you make any purchase or payments with your credit card. These receipts should be cross-checked with the charges that you incurred for that billing month. If there are any other charges that you do not recognize, then you need to immediately contact your credit card company and report the discrepancy for a potential identity theft crime.

Tina L. Douglas is a skilled writer from California. With numerous experiences in the field of writing for several financial institutions, she is greatly qualified across a variety of economic issues. Her notable pieces of writing involve identity theft protection [http://5identitytheftprotection.com/].

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Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Say-No-to-Identity-Theft---Things-to-Look-Out-For-to-Prevent-Identity-Theft-Crimes&id=4355121] Say No to Identity Theft - Things to Look Out For to Prevent Identity Theft Crimes

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email phone number background checks and how it can assist in preventing online identity theft

Preventing Online Identity Theft Through E-mail, Phone-Number Background Checks

Background Checks and How it Can Help Prevent Identity Theft
By Toddy Martin
Finding the right credit card can be tough. You will need to do background checks and other measures just to make sure that you will not lose your money. But there is one very important background check that you will need to do that can definitely save you and your money.

Checking whether or not the personal information you give out is safe with a certain credit agency is the most crucial part in deciding where you should start up an account. The reason why this is so important is because there are a lot of cases of identity theft cases all over the world that have happened and are in fact still happening at this very moment, as it is said that in every 3 seconds, one account is hacked and one person is victimized.


Read+Share How to Prevent Identity Theft by Discovering the hackers behind Phishing e-mails and phone calls.


What exactly is identity theft?

Identity theft is a crime that can happen to anyone with an account in fact not only over the internet, but also in basic accounts such as medical insurances, driver's licenses and the like. As long as you put out personal information then you are at risk.

Identity thieves will use your name and pretend to be you so that they can use and eat up all the benefits they can get under your name. This will not only eat your money up, but it can also leave a bad impression under your name. Just as with your driver's license. If an identity thief gets a hold of your license and the thief is a traffic violator, then of course all the ticket will be charged under your name and the bad record belongs to you.

Read+Share How to Prevent Identity Theft by Discovering the hackers behind Phishing e-mails and phone calls.

One of the most dangerous things a credit identity thief can do is to have control of your credit card account and information. This will definitely cost you a lot of money as they can easily give out your credit card number and buy anything they want over the internet. This is very dangerous as once it is not stopped; it can even lead to bankruptcy.

Another thing is using up your medical insurance benefits and not leaving anything for you. Medical insurance can be a bit pricey because nowadays, medical services are very expensive. But once identity thieves get control of your medical insurance, everything you paid for will go to waste or to someone else. So always be sure to check regularly your credit account to make sure that none of these will happen to you, and if it does happen, you are able to stop it immediately. [http://www.free-credit-reports.com]Reporting identity theft is not an easy task to do especially when you are still struggling with ways of how to get [http://www.free-credit-reports.com]identity theft protection. For more information about credit identity fraud, visit Free-Credit-reports.com.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Background-Checks-and-How-it-Can-Help-Prevent-Identity-Theft&id=3423976] Background Checks and How it Can Help Prevent Identity Theft

Read+Share How to Prevent Identity Theft by Discovering the hackers behind Phishing e-mails and phone calls.

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how business owners can prevent identity theft

What Are Businesses Doing To Prevent Identity Theft?
By Ashley K

Read How to Prevent Identity Theft by Discovering the hackers behind Phishing e-mails and phone calls.

 

As the market is growing digitally, every company is stockpiling as much information related to customer as they can get and keeping their records in order to make their services and products better for their customers. But this has also given rise to the threat of identity theft especially to the business which accumulates customers' personally identifiable information (PII) - it includes credit card numbers, social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, etc. Since these data helps the business in crafting the sales strategies, especially of credit or loans, and in generating data related to employment. This collected information usually company stores in hard disks or maintain database over networks such as internet. All these information containers are vulnerable and malevolent hackers sometimes succeeds in stealing those private data and that leads to identity theft - a criminal activity that involves stealing of personal information to get the access of their financial accounts and using credit cards or take out loans etc.

Not only private companies suffer from such threats but several govt. offices also come under the same radar. Recently Numerous Chinese internet users turned to virtual private network or "VPN" services to shirk "Great Firewall of China" - designed by Chinese government to hinder citizens from accessing certain abhorrent websites that they reckoned objectionable. RSA Research has claimed Chinese hackers are using VPN services as a platform to launch cyber-attacks while covering the original identity of the attackers. RSA dubbed it as "Terracotta VPN." It is revealed that Terracotta VPN is mainly targeting compromised Microsoft Windows servers. The VPN service consists of over 1,500 virtual private network nodes - and the numbers are constantly adding - procured through vulnerable servers around the world.

However, US states have adopted several new laws to prevent these attacks, and private companies are investing additional efforts in order to make the data security system more strong, particularly smaller companies who previously don't have rigorous data security.

Before creating the security, it is necessary to know how thieves enter into business and steal the data. It is not a new idea for thieves to earn through identity theft scam, earlier they used to filch paper files and find the information after hours of working on them, but now internet has made all the work easy for them. Here are some ways by which data breach occurs:

Some even the best of the employees make mistake; after we're all bound to make mistakes. But mistakenly leaking data could have a huge negative impact for both the employee and the company. This usually happens when employees violate data security policies for some reason and fall victim to the fraudulent people. It can also be caused at the loss of a laptop that contains unprotected PII.

Another ways of data breach includes sending the data over email or saving it in flash drives and taking out of the premises. Most of the time hackers devise a false scheme such as phishing, spear phishing, and social engineering. Innocent employees fall prey to them and reveal company's PII key.

To Evade the Threat of Identity Theft Business have Adopted Several Methods That includes:

Encryption Technology: Most of the businesses have adopted encryption to prevent personal identity theft (PII). In this method technologies such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and its successor Transport Layer Security (TLS) are used to encrypt data. Not only the online transmitting data are saved by encryption but data saved on various hard drives such as disk, tape, CD-ROM, or any other storage device can be protected with this technology. The thing to be notice here is encryption technology don't fight or resist against the hackers, instead it will make the stolen data in the wrong hands of hackers useless. Following are the steps that several corporations have taken to secure the data with encryption.

Read How to Prevent Identity Theft by Discovering the hackers behind Phishing e-mails and phone calls.

 
First identify the significant data that require encryption. It can be PII or some other data that are helpful and confidential in the growth of business.


Once data has been identified, next step is to determine the expiration time of the data.


Find the best encryption technologies according to the requirement of the data.


Several companies have created new set of policies and procedures where the correct uses of encryption technologies are defined.


Installing and training users.


Reviewing Commercial Agreements: Companies are getting more involved in knowing the bank's policies; they are indulging deeply before making any agreement. This gives a significant support if there's any fraudulent activity.


Monitoring Thoroughly Business Accounts: Reviewing the business accounts frequently, and alarming on any suspicious transaction. Besides concentrating more on online banking only, and avoiding any paper details.


More Cautious of Phishing Scams: Companies are providing additional training to their employees in order to recognize the phishing scams.


In addition to these methods, several other strategies, simple yet effective, are also company has adopted to secure PII data includes:


Anti-virus and anti-spyware protection

Firewall protection

Updated browsers and other software with security patches


Acquiring all these technologies and providing training to their employees have raised the cost of the companies. And it is not one time investment, in fact it is process. With the passing time as technology is getting update, the companies, concerned about security of customer's PII, also need to update the technologies and knowledge of their employees by giving them training. Thus it is a constant process of investment. However, companies include the same cost into their products and services, the similar way as they include the marketing cost, and sell the products at higher prices. However, paying a little extra for the security is appropriate or not that depends on individual to individual.

Read How to Prevent Identity Theft by Discovering the hackers behind Phishing e-mails and phone calls.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?What-Are-Businesses-Doing-To-Prevent-Identity-Theft?&id=9286903] What Are Businesses Doing To Prevent Identity Theft?

identity theft, data security, prevent identity theft, prevent identity, identity theft business

how to prevent hacker and ensure your cybersecurity

Let's face it, we all get lulled into a false sense of security when we don't hear about major cyber security breaches in the news. As long as we update our anti-virus and don't open unknown emails and don't click on links from sources we don't recognize we're safe, right? Really nothing could be further from the truth. Hackers are always upping their game finding ways around and through holes in the system. These days they have even gotten quite good at creating links and sometimes emails that look convincingly real leading to websites that appear to be authentic.

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Some of the things we don't realize or think about is the fact cyber crime still costs better than $100 billion annually on average whether we see it in front page news or not. This isn't just large businesses and banks that are being breached, but everyday users and individuals are probably at even a higher risk. Anytime you have a connection to the internet through any device your data can be compromised.

Virtually all devices are vulnerable to costly attacks, but there are a few that are more susceptible than others. Devices that use Flash, Adobe Reader or Java can be more at risk than others due to software vulnerabilities. If your devices use any of these you want to make sure you stay up to date on the most recent releases and upgrades which may address some of these. We assume our antivirus will automatically keep us safe and have very little interaction with it. This isn't always the case. It is always a good idea to run a manual check-up and make sure your antivirus is updating itself weekly.
The social media we all know and love can also create big opportunities for hackers. One of the most common tricks hackers will use is to create a dummy account of somebody with a large social network. This way the malicious links they send to social media appear to becoming from a trusted source. Be sure to check friend requests and links from friends before clicking on anything.

Any device that you own that connects to web pages or the internet makes you a potential target. Hackers may seem to be laying low and lurking in the background, but they are always hard at work finding ways to get your information. Make sure that you keep your antivirus software up to date and take proactive measures to keep your information safe. If you are yet to experience it, waiting until after the fact can be a nightmare and at times take years to recover from.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Philip_A_Soluri/2248394

Read and share our guide review on top-best antivirus software for your complete online protection on https://onlinevirusprotection.blogspot.com.ng/2016/03/top-three-best-computer-antivirus.html 

 

Web Security,Cyber Crimes,Hackers,Malware,Spyware,Antivirus

how you can prevent identity theft and be safe online

Find Out How To Prevent Identity Theft
By Jon Arnold

Read How to Prevent Identity Theft by Discovering the hackers behind Phishing e-mails and phone calls.

If you haven't done so recently, you should invest a minor bit of time and effort into getting yourself a copy of your credit report.  It is free once a year in most states, and you need to get a separate copy of it from each of the "big three" credit reporting bureaus, which are Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.  Some creditors report to only one of them, some report to a couple of them, and some even report to all three of them.  The key point is that the data maintained by each one is not necessarily the same, and in fact, is probably vastly different.

Why is the data different?  With the hundreds of millions of credit reports that these companies need to maintain, errors are almost inevitable.  Interestingly enough, studies have shown that the MAJORITY of consumers have at least one or more inaccurate or erroneous piece of information in their credit report.  The scary part is that, contrary to popular belief, the errors will NOT be corrected automatically.  In fact, if you don't alert the credit bureau of the errors, then the errors will be carried forward with your record, year after year.

Please be aware that while identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes of this century so far, it is not limited to just online activities.  Granted, with the advent of the ease of shopping online and being able to purchase something at a great price with just a couple of mouse clicks is attractive for many, there are steps you should take to ensure that you have done everything responsible that you can do to avoid your information from getting into the wrong hands.  One of the first places to start is to get yourself a copy of your credit report, and look especially for accounts that you are not aware of, which is the first sign that you may be a victim of identity theft.

Online identity theft is a serious crime that can clean out your life savings and leave you with a damaged credit history that may take years to repair. Unless you're familiar with the person with whom you're dealing, or are filling out an official form for a legitimate personal or business purpose, information such as a social security number, bank account numbers, credit card numbers and other types of data that might have a bearing on your individuality should never be divulged. If you've ever used a credit card to order take-out food over the phone, you're leaving yourself wide open to identity theft.

Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act several years ago in an attempt to smooth out some problems in the credit reporting industry. The presence of this alert requires any creditor to verify the identity of the borrower prior to granting credit in his or her name. If your credit report shows that you have a low score, lower than what you deserve, that can negatively impact a huge number of areas of your life.  You may want to visit [http://www.credit-help-center.com]Raise Your Credit Score for tips on how to improve your credit score.

When you travel, regardless of how you book your reservations, your personal information will still end up on the company's computer and stored in their databases. Many companies, including some large major corporations, do not protect your personal data the way they should.

Many people ignore the importance of protecting their personal and financial information against identity theft until they become a victim of it. The amount of goods and services purchased with fraudulently obtained personal identity was more than $50 billion dollars last year.

If you purchase merchandise online frequently, you may want to use a separate credit card that you obtain just for that purpose.  Always use ONLY that credit card.  For the junk mail that you receive regularly saying you are approved for a new credit card or mortgage loan, don't just simply throw it in the trash.  Instead, invest in a shredder and take the time to shred those letters.  Many cases of identity theft occur because the thief has gone "dumpster diving" to find those pre-approval letters, and opens an account in your name.

Jon is a computer engineer who maintains web sites on a variety of topics based on his knowledge and experience. You can read more at his web site at Preventing Identity Theft and Protecting Against Identity Theft [http://www.identity-theft-info.com].

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Find-Out-How-To-Prevent-Identity-Theft&id=424373] Find Out How To Prevent Identity Theft

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business tips to prevent online identity theft as owner of small business office

Preventing Identity Theft As A Business Owner

By Jacob Burns

However, in a new twist of events, consumers are no longer the only people affected by identity thieves, as businesses have now become prone to the development in the criminal enterprise of business identity theft with quite a number of businesses losing a lot of revenue in the process. What usually happen is that, a criminal will hijack the identity of a particular business and use it to establish a string of credit with banks and other lenders.

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This in turn leads to a damage that can be very devastating to the victim's business. A business could risk having a spoilt credit history therefore raising the chances of being denied credit, a move that will definitely paralyze your operations. Anyone looking to protect their businesses from identity thieves should ensure they have good privacy protection system.

After a number of businesses reported huge losses due to this, many business owners have turned to seeking help on how to keep their businesses safe from the business identity thieves. Some effective guides have been put in place to ensure consumers and the businesses are thoroughly combating the menace to avoid and reduce the threats businesses face from identity theft. Below are ways which businesses use to prevent identity theft.

Protecting Business Records and Data.

As much as business identity theft is a high-tech crime that affects those shopping, communicating and doing business online, most business identity thefts takes place offline. Some of the common tactics used by these frauds includes stealing wallets and ladies' purses, interrupting or rerouting mail and going through garbage so as to obtain sensitive information.

To counter this and ensure privacy protection, most businesses today maintain records that are important to run their operations and totally shredding all the unnecessary documents or records. However, while doing this it is advisable to put any document that you must keep in a very secure location. This guarantees businesses their privacy protection and ensures smooth running free from identity thieves.

Protecting Their Businesses Online.

Technology has eased life with the introduction of a couple of online services that makes our lives much easier and better. Many people do a lot of their transactions online today. However, caution is advised for businesses which strive to secure their identities. Most of them have resorted to not sharing their financial documents, sensitive personal information or account numbers via platforms like e-mails or any other web-based services.

This has proved to be helpful for many business owners as their financial privacy protection is sorted, therefore running smoothly without having to worry about business identity thieves.

Monitoring Activity.

Actually, this goes without saying, anything that you do not keep your eye on, will definitely face some external disturbance. Therefore, the best method to detect possible identity theft is to be aware and monitor activities around your business. Most businesses do this by monitoring their credit reports more often. Some businesses have gone a step further and registered, rather signed up for    [https://identitysecurely.com]credit monitoring service. Among ways to ensure your privacy protection, this is among the most effective.

Protecting Customers.

When thinking about protecting yourself from identity theft, a business should also consider doing the same for the personal and sensitive information of its clients. By protecting their customers, businesses today have experienced less identity theft because, by protecting their customer's privacy, it keeps them safe as there are no loopholes. Customers can at times be the targets of the identity theft putting both them and the business at risk.

Watching out For Phishing Scams.

Many people have fallen prey to scams and lost quite a lot of money to fraudsters who trick people into divulging their confidential personal and business account information e.g. account number, passwords and user names. Businesses have therefore become alert on such and are avoiding any persuasions to click or open up any attachment in emails as doing so could connect them to fraudulent websites or causing a spyware to be installed in their computer therefore putting their privacy protection at risk.

Subscription to Email Alerts.

There are many genuine online platforms that offer free email alert services that can notify one when business registration information has been changed or updated. Many businesses have embraced the idea and have enrolled for such services because it provides them with early warnings of potential fraud. Using email alert has improved business operations since business owners are notified of any fishy transactions on the go and can therefore quickly act on them, saving their business great deal of money and reputation.

Filling Annual Reports and Renewals on Time.

On top of the administrative risk of dissolution of a business for failure to file, business identity thieves are on the lookout for businesses that are classified as suspended, inactive or in default. These crooks believe that if a business fails to keep up with normal annual business filling, then they will not realize when information has been changed until it is too late. Businesses are countering this by ensuring they file their returns well in advance to ensure their privacy protection.

Many businesses have counted major losses following attacks by business identity thieves who give them sleepless nights. In a bit to recover from the losses, most of them hike prices so as to cover for the cost of ensuring smooth operations, in terms of both the business and consumer's privacy protection. This has led to incessant cases of hiking that has instead turned consumers into victims of high product prices. The cost of business identity theft costs businesses across the world an estimated $221 billion in a year therefore becoming the newest threat to both small and big businesses around the globe. However, following the few ways we have listed above, business owners are able to dramatically reduce the chances of experiencing business identity theft.

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Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Preventing-Identity-Theft-As-A-Business-Owner&id=9288254] Preventing Identity Theft As A Business Owner

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how to avoid being victim of online offline identity theft

Prevent Identity Theft - Tips To Avoid Becoming A Victim
By Abhishek Agarwal

Being a victim of identity theft is a traumatic, heart-breaking experience. No one wants to go through it. Here is some advice that may help you protect your personal financial information and your credit rating.

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In a 2004 study, the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives reported that, in 2003 alone, almost 10 million Americans had become victims of identity theft. The crime cost consumers about $5 billion out-of-pocket and costs American business around $50 billion. As increasing news reports indicate, identity theft is the crime of the era. It's increasing rapidly. Unfortunately, it's also a difficult crime to catch and prosecute.

In 2003, victims of identity theft spent anywhere from $500 to $1200 and from 30 to 60 hours of their personal time trying to resolve the financial problems created by identity theft. Further, the crime itself occurred over a three- to six-month period in each known case.

We all hope we never become victims of identity theft. For one thing, you usually don't learn you're a victim until some debt collector calls you about a bill or a loan application is denied because of your poor credit history or low credit score. This news comes as a shocking surprise to most victims of identity theft, and the personal agony of financial loss and effort needed to resolve the problem take a huge toll. Identity theft victims often report they feel as violated as they would if they had been mugged or their house had been burglarized.

Today, prevention and early detection are best solutions to the identity theft problem. These criminals have a variety of ways to get your personal financial information. They may steal it from your garbage in the form of old bills or pre-approved credit offers. They may trick you on the phone or by e-mail into giving out your personal information. Someone you know and trust may have access to your personal information. Or perhaps someone with good eyesight is standing behind you, watching you enter your PIN at the ATM machine or grocery counter. These things are within your control, but there are other tactics outside your control. Identity thieves also trick the information out of banks and businesses, claiming they are research for a non-existent company or using false identities to secure the information. Hackers may sneak into the databases of large companies and download the information they keep for their clientele.

Once they have your personal information, they can submit false address change reports to your bank or creditors. They can apply for mortgages or loans or make purchases against your credit cards. You won't know about it until the *#(& hits the fan, and your credit history is ruined.

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1. How Can I Tell if Someone is using my Personal Financial Information Illegally?

So how do you know that an identity thief may be targeting your personal information?  What are the signs to look for? And what do you do if you think you are a victim of identity theft? Here are a few of the things you can watch for to protect your personal financial information and your identity:

1. Order a credit report, at the very least, once a year. If a close review of your credit report reveals accounts you've never heard of or loans you did not make, you may be a victim. The report could also contain inquiries about your credit from merchants and vendors you didn't apply to. These are all important red flags, and you should follow-up on the information immediately.

2. You receive a bill or statement from a company you didn't open an account with.

3. You notice unauthorized or incorrect changes on your credit card or bank statement.

4. You get calls from business owners or debt collectors who claim you have a bill that is overdue for a product or service you never ordered or received.

5. You are denied approval of a loan or credit card application, even when you know your credit is good.


If you've noticed any of these warning signs, follow up immediately by contacting the credit card company, bank, or credit report agency with questions. Don't accept inadequate answers to your questions. And continue to follow-up until all your questions have been answered and your credit account or report is accurate and up-to-date.

If you find you can't resolve issues easily, you may be an identity theft victim already. Report this problem to law enforcement authorities immediately. Contact your bank, your creditors, and the credit report agencies to let them know the problem is occurring and ask them to freeze your accounts. Add special passwords that anyone inquiring about our using your accounts must know to get a transaction approved. Do what you can to find out what the identity thief has done. For example, where have they opened accounts or where have the applied for loans. Can you find another address associated with your name that is not familiar to you? If you identify the identity thief, do not contact them directly. Rather provide that information to law enforcement.


2. What Can I do to Prevent Identity Theft Before it Happens?

To avoid becoming a victim of identity theft, follow these guidelines:

1. Keep a very close eye on your credit card activities. Check statements closely as soon as you receive them, and confirm that you made or approved all of the purchases. If there are questionable charges on your statement, contact the company immediately to find out when and where the purchase was made and to formally dispute the charge. You might be surprised to know how many people fail to review their statements carefully each month. Failure to attend to your accounts could leave you thousands, even hundreds of thousands, in debt with no products or services to show for it.

2. Request credit report updates at least twice a year. Look for a lower-than-expected credit score, unfamiliar accounts, or credit inquiries from companies you don't do business with.

3. Be careful to protect your personal financial papers. Keep them in a secure location, preferably under lock and key. And don't allow other people to access them without your express permission.

4. Be alert when you're writing checks or using your ATM card. Is there anyone near enough who could read and steal personal information or your PIN number? Be careful to protect these items from view.

5. Deliver your bill payments directly to the post office, and don't let your mail sit in your mail box too long. This is an open invitation to the ever-vigilant identity thief.

6. Use unexpected and unique passwords on all your internet accounts, mixing letters with numbers and symbols. And change your passwords at least every six months.

Keep up on the news about new identity theft strategies and scams. Read the paper and surf the internet to find out who's doing what these days. Make sure you know what your creditors do with their customers' personal information and demand they protect it. 

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Avoid becoming a victim of identity theft by applying common sense and careful thought to your everyday transactions. Question people who ask for inappropriate information and feel empowered to refuse to answer. Remember that you may not know your co-workers and acquaintances very well. Do not share your information with anyone you don't trust 100%.

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Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Prevent-Identity-Theft---Tips-To-Avoid-Becoming-A-Victim&id=1659748] Prevent Identity Theft - Tips To Avoid Becoming A Victim

Identity theft,Identity theft prevention,Tips for avoiding Identity theft, ID theft tips

how to be protected online and be safe from cyber threats and cyberattacks

Viruses, ransomware, scams, identity theft and loss of digital information are becoming more and more common as we move towards a digital age.

With digital security becoming more apparent, it is very important to adopt a good habit in keeping yourself and your family safe online. Below are some basic tips and hints to protect your identity, files and your personal device.

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Keep your computer, smartphone and tablet clean

• Keep your device up to date with the latest software
  Software updates provide enhancements and security updates.
• Keep your security software (anti-virus) up to date
  Security software needs latest virus definitions to identify new and emerging virus/malware. Yes, even Mac's and smartphones needs security software.
• Scan external devices (USB)
  USB and external devices can carry virus from infected devices onto yours. Make sure you enable external device scanning to ensure it doesn't get onto your computer

Be very web savvy online

• Watch out for dangerous links and attachmentsWhen there is doubt, delete it. Links/attachments in emails, tweets, SMS, posts and advertising are way cyber criminals can compromise your device. If its suspicious or too good to be true, delete it, block or mark it as junk.
• Check for trusted websites
  When banking online or shopping, ensure they have SSL (secure socket layer) security. SSL protects passwords and your banking information securely.
• Beware of Phishing
  Phishing is a way for cyber criminals to mask legitimate website with their own to steal your confidential login. Do not click on any requests to verify your password unless you requested it.
• Risks with public Wi-Fi Hotspots
  Adjust your security level on your device when accessing public networks. Your device firewall and anti-virus can detect and adjust automatically when connecting to different networks. Turn off your Wi-Fi to public networks when you don't need to use it anymore.

Protect your personal information

• Keep your password complex
  Don't use generic password. Keep it complex with the combination of upper case/lower case characters, numbers and symbols. If it's too hard to remember, use a secure password manager to keep track.
• Use Two Step Verification
  Two step verification will make it more difficult to access you online presence. If a cyber criminal has your password, they will be stopped if they don't have access to your other devices and accounts.

Back it all up
Backup your data, photos, documents, video and other digital information and store it securely.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Sin_Ngo/2289292

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bestbuy antivirus software for computer

While most people know this, it's still worth mentioning that if you want to have a carefree online experience - an antivirus is simply a necessity. Despite all of the efforts by programmers from all around the world to remove harmful web pages from the search engine results, people can still access all of those pages directly, or trough social media networking sites.

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This is one of the many reasons why you need a software solution that is able to protect you from threats such as malware, spyware, Trojan Horses, key-loggers, and much more. According to Kaspersky Lab, there are over 300.000 new potential threats every day; and in order to protect your PC, you cannot simply pick any random software and hope that it will do miracles for your system. So here are a few tips on how to choose the best antivirus software.

Search for Online Reviews
Most reviewers are quite honest actually, that is, if you know where the look on the internet. PC Advisor and PC Mag are great for recommendations, because they usually have well-written, informative reviews about the latest software on the market. However, if you really want to compare specifications, prices, add-ons and more, you should definitely find a top 10 antivirus list online in order to narrow the search.

Of course, another option is to seek out some forums like Bleeping Computer and Tom's Hardware so you could ask some members for advice. The best option is to combine the two - read some expert reviews first, and then the users about their opinion on the matter. Doing this, you will be able to know if a particular antivirus is underrated or overhyped.

Paid vs. Free
As you probably already know, there are two types of antiviruses - paid and free. The free software is, naturally, completely free of charge (however, some have premium editions and add-ons which can cost you) whereas paid software comes in an array of different packages and rates. Obviously, if you want the best across-the-board protection for your machine, you should pay for your software. Paid solutions usually have a wide range of protection features, and they won't distract you with upgrade notifications every two minutes.

Nevertheless, if you have a small budget or you don't want to spend a large sum of cash on a piece of software; don't dismiss the free ones, because there are some fantastic solutions on the market that won't cost you a penny. If you opt for a something free of charge, we recommend that you download either Avast Free Antivirus 2016 or BullGuard Internet Security, as both have top notch features comparable to paid software.

Look at the Features Closely
When it comes to choosing the safest software, perhaps the most important factor is how much protection it's going to provide for your device. Even the majority of free antiviruses nowadays offer protection against such threats as fraud tools, backdoor and browser hijackers. Also, keep in mind that a big price doesn't necessarily equate to first-rate protection and cost-free doesn't necessarily mean flawed software either.

VPN security is one the many features offered by most of today's antiviruses; this will come in handy if you regularly use unprotected WI-FI as it will protect your computer or mobile device from identity thieves and hackers. Many people who browse the Web and download content often find unwanted toolbars downloaded in the process; luckily, most software has "Browser Cleanup" tool that will keep everything unwanted from your browser.

Mark Williams is computer safety consultant who makes assessments of new variations of anti-virus programs since 2007. These tests aids him to choose the ideal anti-virus for any personal computer. To see anti-virus examination reports take a look at his webpage http://www.top10antiviruslist.com/

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how to have cybersafety and cybersecurity and prevent online threats

The busiest travel and vacation holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, will quickly be upon us. And whether traveling across the country, borders or just to the next town, it's important to be secure in cyber space.

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Travelers very often rely on public computers or WiFi and can become easy prey for hackers. Or they may need to leave their electronic devices unattended in hotel rooms or in-transit.
The following procedures will keep you cyber protected next time you're away from home.

Prior to Leaving Home:

• Limit the number of electronic devices you take to those you can carry on your person; making it less likely for your devices to get stolen or compromised.
•  
• Prior to leaving, update your mobile software. In order to improve your device's capability in defending itself against malware, keep your operating system software and apps on your mobile device updated.
•  
• While your device is on idle, turn off the Wi-Fi and its remote access modes. Some devices will automatically seek and connect to all available wireless networks. Disabling these features will allow you to connect to only the wireless and Bluetooth networks you choose, when you choose.?
•  
• Create strong passwords. Passwords should be at least eight characters in length with both numbers, letters and special characters (@!$?). Create unique passwords for each device.
•  
• Enable stronger authentication. Stronger authentication (also known as two-factor or multi-factor authentication) adds an extra layer of security beyond using a password to access your accounts. Most major e-mail, social media and financial platforms offer multi-factor authentication to their users. Be sure to ask your service provider if you can activate this feature before departing on your trip.

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During the Trip:
Be aware of your Internet activity and how you can protect your privacy as well as your device:

• Keep your phone locked when not using it. Even a few minutes could be enough time to allow someone to steal your information. Using strong PINs and passwords for your accounts and locking the screen would go a long way to protect your device.
• Think before you connect. Be sure to confirm the name of the network and login procedures with appropriate staff of public wireless hotspots at airports, hotels, train/bus stations or cafes to make sure that the networks are legitimate. Many fake networks have seemingly legitimate names
• Protect your money and your information. Do not conduct sensitive activities, such as online shopping, banking, or sensitive work, using a public wireless network or a public computer.
• Delete your cookies and cache. Each time the Internet is accessed, browsers save your information. This saved data is called a "cookie." This cookie, can include login credentials or other personal information, that can then be accessed by other individuals that may use the computer. If you use the Internet on a public computer (such as at a hotel or café) while you are traveling, be sure to delete your cookies in the web browser after you have finished.
• Don't broadcast your location. If you do, you could be alerting stalkers where to find you, or telling a thief that you are not home. Many social media platforms offer location-tagging as part of their features. Avoid using these location features and do not announce on social media that you will be out of town.

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To learn more about how you can defend against cyber threats, please visit the Department of Homeland Security's Stop.Think.Connect.™ Campaign

DL Consultants, LLC
http://www.VigilanceandSecurity.com
Vigilance and Security is a fast growing internet reseller of a broad line of cutting edge security camera and surveillance systems appropriate for home, as well as, small and medium business applications. Our clients include parents, homeowners, warehouses, convenience stores, restaurants and retail establishments. Our mission is to provide the highest level of service, integrity, and product value.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dorothy_Lumski/32707