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SALT LAKE CITY — Identity theft is a growing problem in America. According to the FTC, over 1.6 million U.S. households have had their bank, debit, or credit card accounts compromised.
Safeguarding your identity online can be easy. These simple steps can help you protect yourself.
Keep certain details safe
Hackers are very, very clever. Growing in popularity are "social engineering" attacks. Social engineering involves finding many small details about someone or a business that can be put together to impersonate someone.
To protect yourself from social engineering attacks, limit the details about yourself available online. There are very few reasons to use your social security number online. But even lesser pieces of personal information can be put together to give a hacker access to your accounts.
Be vary careful what you put on social networks, and of your privacy settings. Many pictures include GPS data about where they were taken. A hacker could use this to devise your home address.
The site Lifehacker.com has an always up-to-date guide on Facebook privacy. It will help you understand what all the privacy settings really mean. The security company Sophos also has a useful Facebook "best practices" guide.
Be wary of authorized apps
Apps that have access to your Facebook or Twitter account can have huge security holes. Some even maliciously steal your personal information.
Apps you have authorized can have full access to your personal information, and you don't often know how securely that information is kept. Only authorize apps you really trust.
Luckily, Facebook now offers granular access to apps. You can choose exactly what rights you give to any app you authorize. Facebook also allows you to set what information of yours your friend's apps can see. These privacy settings can be found here.
Twitter also has similar privacy concerns with authorized apps. You can see what apps have access here and deny access to apps you no longer use or don't trust.
Know where you credit card number is going
Whenever you submit your credit card number online, it is being transferred from your internet browser to someone else's computer. Hopefully, it's to a secure server owned by the company you're trying to buy something from. Browsers today have a simple way to at least make sure the website you're on is the one you think it is.
When secure data is transferred on the internet is is done through HTTPS. When you're about to sign in to an account or submit an order, glance up at the address bar of your browser. Make sure it says "https://" at the beginning of the web address.
If it does say "https://", there is usually more information available. Reliable and trusted websites will guarantee your browser that the information will be sent to the right place. If you click the small green lock icon near the address you can see that the connection is verified.
Note: the secure HTTPS connection icon is green in Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer on Mac and Windows. Safari uses a grey lock icon.
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Avoid using your credit card numberIf you need to buy something from a small and less established retailer, the security of your credit card number is less protected then at a well-established retail company. For added security against your credit card getting stolen, don't use your real credit card number. Most major credit cards offer some sort of temporary or disposable credit card number you can use.
Disposable credit card numbers can be set up from your credit card's web page, and can be set to be used once or twice, until you discard it, or set to last. You can have, for example, your phone, cable and electric bills all charged automatically to different card numbers, all tied to the same account.
By using disposable credit card numbers you can be assured that no one who gets your temporary credit card number will be able to use it more than once.
Also consider using a service like PayPal or Google Wallet, if available. These services act as intermediates, so the merchant never gets your credit card info. You pay PayPal (or it charges your account) and gives the money to the merchant.
Use secure passwords
Enough cannot be said about how important it is to use secure passwords. It's the first line of defense between you and a would-be identity thief. Unfortunately, many people use simple or common passwords that a hacker can crack in minutes.
Here are some basic rules for creating a good password:
- Don't use words from a dictionary (in any language)
- Don't use personal information (like name or birthday)
- Don't use the same password for multiple sites
- Use at least 6 to 9 characters
- Use upper and lower case letters
- Use special characters (like !,@#.$%'~`&*_)
If you have trouble remembering your passwords, try using a password manager. Password managers offer a secure place to write down all your passwords, and are available on all platforms.
Creating different passwords for different websites, but still something you can remember, can be easy. Try creating a nice and complex password, such as aAaz.u77laK. That password can be modified for each use by adding on something specific to each site for which you use it. For example, for your Netflix account, you could use aAaz.u77laK_net, or for Facebook it could be aAaz.u77laK_fac. A system like this can make remembering secure passwords easy.
Keeping yourself safe online is your responsibility. Consumer Reports, among many other privacy advocate groups, has spoken out against paid identity theft prevention services. The best way to protect yourself is to be conscious of what you do online.
Taylor Wilson is an IT professional at a small Utah company. He has a passion for helping people with technology. Email: taylorwilson@testonetwo.com Online: www.testonetwo.com
