Identity Fraud New Year's Resolutions
Welcome everyone to 2013, I trust you all had a great holiday season, and have started the New Year with positive energy. My first post of the year is inspired by those New Year resolutions myself and lots of people out there make to ourselves but very rarely take seriously. But here are a number of New Year's resolutions that I hope you will take seriously this New Year. When it comes to protecting your digital identity, here are my top 5 New Year's resolutions...
1) My number one New Year's resolution for keeping yourself safe and secure online during 2013 is educating yourself. Now is the time to get yourself informed about some of the most common dangers that exist online. This list is just the start, but if you are serious about keeping yourself and your family safe online, then knowledge really is power.
2) Beware of phishing attacks or run the risk of voluntarily giving out your personal information. Most of you should be well aware of phishing by now. This form of attack has existed for quite a while now and there has been a lot of information on it. Phishing remains a form of identity theft with a high success rate and more people falling victim every day. My number one rule... your bank, building society or any service provider should never ask you for personal or security information through an email, or a link in an email. If you doubt the authenticity of an email, it is better to ring up and ask.
3) Maintain your circle of trust by being cautious with content that you receive from unknown entities. One of the biggest issues I have with the internet is the breakdown of trust that most people seem only to happy to accept. My candid advice is for you not to rush to blindly accept things at face value on the internet. If a stranger came knocking on your door at home, would you gladly open the door and allow them in without questioning who they are.
4) Use up-to-date Anti-Virus software to protect your PC against malicious malwares that may be looking to steal your personal information. Today's modern malware is very good at stealing data while staying undetected. Even an up-to-date Anti-virus software may not protect you 100% but at least it gives you much more of a fighting chance than having nothing at all.
5) Better password management, I can’t emphasize this enough, routinely changing your passwords makes it difficult for fraudsters and takes you off the easy target list. Where possible change your passwords every 3 months and try to choose something hard to figure out but memorable.
The above mentioned points should serve as important steps to a basic understanding of what is out there. I have heard so many people say "it will never happen to me" but offcourse there is always a first time. Take my advice seriously about keeping yourself safe online. If there is anything more you would like to know about this topic or something that you are unsure of, please feel free to contact me via email: contact@emgfraudconsulting.co.uk