inSCIghts

Holiday Safety and Security

 

December 14th, 2011 | Author: Dr. Ross Riggs

Recently I had a quick email from a company that I use and that I trust to help me keep my personal information safe and secure: LifeLock. Check them out at LifeLock.com.

Allow me to pass on some of the hints they gave regarding safety and security at the holidays (although we all “know” most of these things, we often don’t think about them, we are just too busy or we have the sometimes fatal “It will never happen to me” disease.) Still, reconsider some of these suggestions:

Shopping In-Store

1. Be aware of your surroundings and protect personal space at the ATM and registers.
2. Inspect ATMs and points of sale terminals and look for tampering before swiping cards.
3. Keep cards in sight when paying to deter dishonest cashiers.
4. Store all receipts and closely check your monthly statements to verify transactions.

Shopping Online

1. Be sure your anti-virus software is installed properly and up-to-date.
2. Shop with retailers you trust and who have positive Better Business Bureau ratings.
3. Avoid links and only visit shopping sites by directly typing in their website address.
4. Don’t purchase items while using public computers or shared wireless networks.

Thanks to LifeLock for those reminders. Did you know that it is very simple to put a ‘look alike’ card reader over the opening of an ATM that will copy all of your information as you use it? All the offender has to do is retrieve the card reader from the front of the ATM and download all the information it has stored while you used your card.

I struggle with having the desire to finish my shopping on-line even when I am on public access computers. I can be too trusting of my own anti-hacker software and forget that once the air is out in the electronic space it is free for the picking! I sometimes even trust LifeLock too much in those situations and say to myself, “Self, go ahead it will only take a second to ‘checkout’ besides LifeLock will tell you if someone intercepts my information. Well, that is true when it is happening on my computer, but what about while it floats around in space in the milliseconds it takes to do damage. Milliseconds are all it needs.

So, don’t let your kids unwisely use your card information, guard all your info lie it is vital to you, because even if it isn’t vital to you now, once it is in the hands of the bad guys, it will be!
If you can use a microchip reader blocking device to protect your credit cards like a lined wallet or card carrier, you should do so.

Just some ‘holiday safety thoughts’ to make your January bill payment easier, that is by at least making sure all those bills are truly yours!

Merry Christmas and a Safe & Secure New Year!