How to Protect Your Identity Online

How much time do you spend online? The more we do online, the more we put ourselves at risk for identity theft, often without even realizing it. It’s very difficult to keep your personal information private. There are however, several basic steps you can take right now to make it a harder for potential identity thieves to take advantage of you.

• Create strong passwords, and change them monthly. Make sure they are at the minimum six characters, and include upper and lower case letters as well as numbers and symbols. Don’t use the same password in more than one place. Also be sure that when you answer your security questions for certain sites, you aren’t giving away the answers to them with information from say…your Facebook profile.

• Don’t keep ANY sensitive information on your PC or laptop. This includes passwords, financial information and tax returns. Get a USB flash drive and keep it in a secure, locked place.

• If you are on a site that requires you register, only fill out the information that is required.

• When sending sensitive data, make sure to look for a small padlock at the bottom of your browser window to ensure you are sending via a secure (SSL) connection. This prevents hackers from being able to access your information.

• When buying online, make sure you use a credit card that has liability protection.

• Be wary anytime anyone asks for personal information. Don’t click on links in your e-mail asking for such information.

• Take steps to protect yourself on Facebook. Don’t include your full birth date or home address. Use common sense and don’t share too much – for instance, don’t tell everyone you are going out of town, and don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want your current or a future employer to see. Or your mother for that matter. Use the privacy controls to prevent people other than your friends from seeing your information as well.

-Angela Skinner Mullen