Nowadays, we have more and more personal information and financial data which are important to us. Furthermore, in this 21st century, there is becoming gradually difficult to protect our personal information and financial data due to all data are computerized. Besides that, it's hard not to share personal information, such as credit/debit card number, security password, bank account number and so on through internet because it's more convenient for company or individual to do monetary and other transactions more than using traditional method which used paper and pen to record the transaction. However, in these modern time, there are lot of advanced technologies which let hackers and predators have more chances to thieve or hack companies or individual's personal and financial data.Moreover, with the spyware, viruses and etc, there is getting easily to for anyone to become the victim of online fraud or theft.
Here are the 8 ways which can secure your personal information when making monetary or others transaction from being theft or hacked in daily computer life:
1) Keep your personal and sensitive data off from your computer
It's difficult for spyware program or viruses to hack your personal information if you don't have any record in computer. Human prefer convenient and easy ways when they are doing their work, so they just save those needed information in computer. Why can't just save those information in a thumbdrive which just cost around RM20 to prevent from saving in computer? Keep those information in a safe place and when you need it, just plug it to computer and access to those personal file.This is easy, effective and protective way to secure those sensitive data.
2) Do not use the same password for every thing on the internet
Nowadays, there are many website which need password to access for it. Definitely, there are nobody who like to memorize lot of different passwords everyday, so they just use same password for all website they access. However, hacker love those people who just use their name or birth date to be their password. It's very easy for hacker to access to other websites. Actually, it's no need to use different password in every website, but need to make sure not using only one password. Furthermore, it just need to add one or two number behind the password then will make it more complicated to being stolen or hacked.
3) Always think before providing information when solicited
If you get an email that has a link that require you to provide personal information, be careful and make sure that you visit the website manually to check for the existence of the website. Some artificial websites are very close to existence website, maybe just miss out a word. Besides that, if the website exist also doesn't mean it is legal. If you never heard about the website before, use an search engine to search for the website, and if see anything like " xxx is a scams", just don't access for it.
4) Only collect to those secure wireless network
For those who're using wireless network at home, make sure you secure it with password. Don't let trouble troubles you, connecting to a nonsecure network is finding troubles for yourself. Furthermore, there are always lot of spyware if you connect to nonsecure network. Just avoid from them!
5) Make sure the anti-virus and anti-spyware are installed and always up-to-date
Definitely, it's important to get an anti-virus and anti-spyware for your computer. You can either buy an excellent anti-virus program like Norton or use free anti-virus program such as Avast, AVG and etc, those are good program too. Besides that, must make sure that the program are always up-to-date to get the latest program to secure the computer. There are lot people who believe that anti-spyware program is not useful. It's wrong! Spyware program can send your data to their creator so they can make money from it. There are lot of good anti-spyware program such as Windows Defender, AdWare, SpywareBlaster, and SpySweeper. It's better to spend some time to get a protection from it rather than being infected.
6) Turn your computer off or in standby when you're not using it
This is the basic step to secure your computer, it is no way for being hack or get infected by virus or spyware if turn off the computer. There are lot of people always switch on their desktop and laptop at home even if they're not at home.Just switch it off when you're not using it.
7) Lock your computer at home and at office
This is another basic way to protect your computer but ignore by most people. Especially in office, it's better to swich off or lock off the computer when you're not in office to prevent from others to look through and get your personal information through your computer. Just spend some time to use password to lock it off or switch off the computer is saver then let co-worker to get access to your computer.
8) Be careful who you give your computer to when it needs fixing
Unfortunately, you will need to give your computer to others to fix it when computer has problem if you're not a technician. It's very easy to let others to get all your personal information or sensitive data from your computer when you're giving others to fix your computer. So, it's better to save all the personal information or sensitive data in an external hard drive before send the computer to the technician. Besides that, if you get a technician to your house to fix your computer, make sure you're with him when he's fixing. It's also an easy way to let the technician to access to your personal document if you are in another room.
Reference:
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/13-ways-to-protect-personal-data-from-online-fraud-and-identity-theft/
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