October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, so we, along with SingleHop, a provider of Cloud hosting services, wanted to share a few security tips on protecting sensitive information and financial information online.
We have more and more information on the internet these days. We shop online, bank online, maintain our lives on the internet. So it’s really important to be aware that even though internet security is good in legitimate sites, the bad guys are good at trying to fool us.
3 Main Ways Hackers Can Steal Your Sensitive Information:
- Online Scams – very sophisticated. And it’s not only old people falling for them. 1/5 of last year’s victims were under 30!
- Phishing – create fake sites, emails, etc to get you to enter your usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information
- Massive Data Breaches – hack into databases and steal information
3 Main Ways to Protect Yourself:
- Be very vigilant! Check for misspelled words or other strange items on a website before entering any credit card information. If you entered the website from a link in an email, be certain that you are on the actual website. You may want to go directly to the actual website instead of entering through a link. Your bank and other creditors will NOT ask for your personal information through an email. Never respond to those.
- Use Browser bookmarks for sites such as your bank and other places you commonly visit that require sensitive information. Don’t enter those sites through links in emails.
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Demand that your financial institutions and other places you provide sensitive information are using dedicated servers with the highest levels of protection possible. If they aren’t, don’t use them any more.”
Don’t fall for scams. I guarantee if you have an unknown rich aunt somewhere in the world who leaves you a million dollars, her representative will not ask for your bank account over email.
What tips or resources do you have for keeping your sensitive information safe from hackers?
