How to Protect Your Business or Yourself from Identity Theft

How to Protect Your Business or Yourself from Identity Theft

There are a lot of people out there looking to steal your credit card numbers, social security numbers and other sensitive information which may or may not be available in electronic formats. Unfortunately, protection technology tends to be a step behind the hackers and phishers. The following information will help to prevent you from becoming a victim of identity theft.

Step 1

Set up proper security defenses. You should have real-time virus protection, real-time spyware-malware protection and a properly configured firewall. This will keep the majority of risks off of your computer, which is the primary means of entry for phishers looking for personal information. Also, the security software does not do anything to protect yourself or your business from identity theft if you do not run automatic updates.

Step 2

Protect your e-mail. Identity thefts often use malware or Trojan horses attached to e-mails in order to infect your computer with data-farmers or other programs designed to identify personal information and transmit that code to another location where the thief can pick it up anonymously. Don’t open e-mail from people you don’t know. Also make sure you are using software or a webmail service that identifies bulk mail and removes it from your inbox.

Step 3

Password protect your electronic devices. The best way to do this is to lock the device from the bios side and from the software side. Any locks can be hacked or bypassed by someone who knows what they are doing, but it makes it difficult to steal files without stealing the device itself and even at that most people would not go through the trouble of unlocking a laptop, pda, cell-phone, etcetera in hopes that they will find personal information.

Step 4

Don’t store credit card numbers electronically. As said in the previous step, devices are never completely secure. You also should not keep paper copies in your files as files are often stolen by thieves who might break into your home or business. It is best only to have the number on the credit card itself and stored in a secure location.

Step 5

Encrypt sensitive information. Any information sent over the web must be encrypted. There are many different companies out there which offer services for encrypting data either for ftp file transfer, API or XML. This will prevent information from being sent over the internet in a format that it could be stolen.

Step 6

If you are running a business, make sure that employees are firm on privacy guidelines in order to protect employees and customers from identity theft. A shredder is necessary if any personal information is ever written down or printed. This same concept applies to your family and a small shredder can make a nice addition to your home office in order to keep your personal information secure.