How to Protect Personal and Financial Data

Saving usernames, passwords, financial and other personal information online is a very common practice for many users. Learning how to protect personal and financial data from cyber-thieves should be a PC priority.Having your information safe will not only prevent you from cyber-theft, but also from personal identity theft, financial scams, medical benefit fraud and much more.

6 Tips to Protect Personal and Financial Data

From time to time, when we need to purchase an item online or when we need to access a specific bank account from our PC we are required to provide personal information. Unfortunately, by doing this, we are often exposed and vulnerable to cyber-theft. Therefore, sensitive information should be safeguarded and you can accomplish that by following these tips and best practices to protect personal and financial data:

1. 1. Encrypt your data. Encryption helps you to protect data from people that you don’t want to see it. You can encrypt files on your PC so that no one can open them without a password, whether a malicious hacker hacks your computer, intercepts an important email, or someone breaks into your home and finds your computer. When browsing the web, and you want to purchase something online, many reputable companies, like iTunes, use encryption within their websites to prevent cyber-thieves from stealing one’s credit card and personal information while they are using the site to checkout.

 

1. 1. Secure your network. Wi-Fi hacking protection is an important step to follow when protecting personal information. Using a secure wireless network prevents hackers from gaining access to your network, as well as the computers and other devices connected to the network, so they can’t look into your personal information.

 

1. 1. Don’t reuse passwords. It is tempting to reuse passwords; however it’s not recommended. Having a repeated password for different accounts can allow hackers to access different sensitive information on different platforms, or websites, since they were able to figure out one of your passwords once before. Hackers can use that password to try and use it in each of your other accounts and if you have the same password, it can be dangerous as they have gained access to a whole new list of information.

 

1. 1. Avoid storing private information in public computers. If you need to use a public computer, like the ones at the library, a cyber café or even a friend’s computer, always remember to log out of the accounts you accessed and never choose to save login information if prompt.

 

1. 1. Identify phishing. Phishing is known as the malicious attempt to obtain sensitive data. You can identify phishing if you receive an email with instructions to visit a website and update personal information, such as passwords, credit card, bank account numbers or social security number. To prevent this type of malicious activity, refrain from opening emails from unknown senders.

 

1. 1. Back up your data. A recommended method to protect personal and financial data is to back up all your data. You can either choose an onsite backup like an external hard drive or an online backup like cloud services. It’s always good to have both.

 

Lately, learning to protect personal and financial data is a growing concern, as well as challenge. By following these tips one can be even more secure than you think. It is always important to remember that if you don’t want to encrypt and back up your data, or secure your network on your own we are here to assist you at any time.