Name, Rank, and Social Security Number Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the U.S.
The U.S. Secret Service has estimated that consumers nationwide lose $745 million to identity theft each year. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the average victim spends 607 hours and averages $1,000 just to clear their credit records.
Theives who steal Identiies use a number of different methods to retrieve your personal information without you knowing. They may be able to gain your information from businesses or other institutions by stealing it. They may bribe an employee who has access to records. They may get information by hacking into records. Maybe they will end up just plain conning the information out of employees. Once identity thieves have your personal information, they may easily use it to commit an act of fraud or theft using your name.
How can you tell if you have become a victim of identity theft?
Some signs include unexplained charges or withdrawals from your financial accounts
Bills or other mail stop arriving because the thief might have submitted a change of address
Perhaps a credit application is denied you for no apparent reason
Debt collectors may begin calling you about merchandise or services you didn’t buy.
Your computer can be a goldmine to anyone who is in the practice of stealing identities. Your computer contains a wealth of personal information for an identity thief to play with.
To protect yourself and your computer against identity theft consider:
Updating virus protection software frequently.
Consider setting your virus protection software to update automatically.
The Windows XP operating system also can be set to check for patches automatically.
Windows XP will also download the patches to your computer automatically.
Do not opening files sent to you by strangers
Do not click on hyperlinks
Do not download programs from people or companies you don’t know.
Use a firewall program, particularly if you are on high speed Internet connections
High Speed cable or DSL leaves your computer attached to the internet 24h a day.
Make sure you firewall against intruders if your machine will be conneted 24h/day
Only provide personal or financial information through secured websites.
While not fool proof, a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a URL for a website that begins "https:" (the "s" stands for secure), may provide additional security.
Stop storing financial information on your laptop, unless this is absolutely necessary.
Delete all the personal information stored on a computer before disposing of it.
Use a "wipe" utility program to overwrite the entire hard drive.
Check with an anti-fraud education organization such as CardCops (www.cardcops.com).
Card Cops runs a web site designed to help consumers determine whether their credit card numbers may have been stolen or not. They monitor Internet "chat rooms" where identity thieves gather. Here, the thieves illicitly trade and sell stolen credit card numbers. CardCops turns pertinent information over to law enforcement authorities. The authorities will also allow consumers to access a database to see whether individual card numbers may have been stolen.
In the first two months of operation, the site identified more than 100,000 stolen credit cards.
As with any crime, you can not completely control whether you will become a victim, but you can take steps to minimize your risk by remaining diligent and by minimizing outside access to your personal information.
Showing posts with label firewall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label firewall. Show all posts
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Secure Your PC - Bare Basics
Securing Your Computer System Today is more than a necessity! As more people use their computers for everything from online chatting - to online banking, investing and shopping, sheer number of electronic data being passed to and fro is staggering.
While online interactions and money-transfering, product and service orders become regular activities, hackers, attachers and crackers are never without people - and computers - to practice their skills on.
While some may be looking to phish your personal information and identity for resale, others simply just want to use your computer (your computer's resources and internet connection) as a platform for attacking other unknowing targets.
Below are a few easy, cost-effective steps you can take to make your computer more secure.
Always make backup copies of important information and store these in a safe placel - that means - separate from your computer!
Update and patch your operating system, web browser and software frequently.
If you have a Windows operating system, start by going to http://www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
and run the update wizard.
This program will help you find the latest patches for your Windows computer.
Also, go to
http://www.officeupdate.microsoft.com/
to locate possible patches for your Office programs.
Install a firewall. Without a good firewall, viruses, worms, Trojans, malware and adware can all easily access your computer from the Internet. Consideration should be given to the benefits and differences between hardware and software based firewall programs.
Review your browser and email settings for optimum security.
Why should you do this?
Active-X and JavaScript are often used by hackers to plant malicious programs into your computers. While cookies are relatively harmless in terms of security concerns, they do still track your movements on the Internet to build a profile of you. As a minimum precautions, set your security setting for the "internet zone" to High, and your "trusted sites zone" to Medium Low.
Install antivirus software and set for automatic updates. This way, you'll receive the most current versions.
Do not open unknown email attachments. It is simply not enough that you may recognize the address from which it originates because many viruses can spread from a familiar address.
Do not run programs from unknown origins.
Also, do not send these types of programs to friends and coworkers!!! They contain funny or amusing stories or jokes, but may also contain a Trojans horse waiting to infect a computer.
Disable hidden filename extensions. By default, the Windows operating system is set to "hide file extensions for known file types". Disable this option so that file extensions display in Windows. Some file extensions will, by default, continue to remain hidden, but you are more likely to see any unusual file extensions that do not belong.
Turn off your computer and disconnect from the network when not using the computer. A hacker can not attack your computer when you are disconnected from the network or the computer is off. Consider making a boot disk on a floppy disk in case your computer is damaged or compromised by a malicious program. Obviously, you need to take this step before you experience a hostile breach of your system.
While online interactions and money-transfering, product and service orders become regular activities, hackers, attachers and crackers are never without people - and computers - to practice their skills on.
While some may be looking to phish your personal information and identity for resale, others simply just want to use your computer (your computer's resources and internet connection) as a platform for attacking other unknowing targets.
Below are a few easy, cost-effective steps you can take to make your computer more secure.
Always make backup copies of important information and store these in a safe placel - that means - separate from your computer!
Update and patch your operating system, web browser and software frequently.
If you have a Windows operating system, start by going to http://www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
and run the update wizard.
This program will help you find the latest patches for your Windows computer.
Also, go to
http://www.officeupdate.microsoft.com/
to locate possible patches for your Office programs.
Install a firewall. Without a good firewall, viruses, worms, Trojans, malware and adware can all easily access your computer from the Internet. Consideration should be given to the benefits and differences between hardware and software based firewall programs.
Review your browser and email settings for optimum security.
Why should you do this?
Active-X and JavaScript are often used by hackers to plant malicious programs into your computers. While cookies are relatively harmless in terms of security concerns, they do still track your movements on the Internet to build a profile of you. As a minimum precautions, set your security setting for the "internet zone" to High, and your "trusted sites zone" to Medium Low.
Install antivirus software and set for automatic updates. This way, you'll receive the most current versions.
Do not open unknown email attachments. It is simply not enough that you may recognize the address from which it originates because many viruses can spread from a familiar address.
Do not run programs from unknown origins.
Also, do not send these types of programs to friends and coworkers!!! They contain funny or amusing stories or jokes, but may also contain a Trojans horse waiting to infect a computer.
Disable hidden filename extensions. By default, the Windows operating system is set to "hide file extensions for known file types". Disable this option so that file extensions display in Windows. Some file extensions will, by default, continue to remain hidden, but you are more likely to see any unusual file extensions that do not belong.
Turn off your computer and disconnect from the network when not using the computer. A hacker can not attack your computer when you are disconnected from the network or the computer is off. Consider making a boot disk on a floppy disk in case your computer is damaged or compromised by a malicious program. Obviously, you need to take this step before you experience a hostile breach of your system.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
