How to Protect Yourself Online

In my last blog posts, I have discussed the fact that there are some risks involved with online banking. Banks do their best to protect their data, as identity theft is clearly not something they want people to associate with their brand, but there are still things that you, as a consumer, can do to help protect yourself online.


Firstly, and it may go without saying, but you should never, under any circumstances, allow your password to be compromised. There are numerous steps you can take to ensure this, but the most essential is to avoid viruses and other software that could monitor keystrokes or steal passwords from being downloaded onto your computer. The best way to do this is to follow these steps, which may seem simplistic but are important (from http://www.techsling.com/2010/09/essential-guide-to-online-banking-protection/):

1. 1. Keep your firewalls set to the highest level of security possible.
2. 2. Ensure that your anti-virus software is operational and up to date.
3. 3. Never open an e-mail attachment from people you do not know and scan with anti-virus, if you must.
4. 4. Never double-click on an e-mail attachment that ends in .exe as this denotes that the file is an ‘executable’ file which has the potential of harming your computer.
5. 5. If you suspect that you are already a victim of an Internet banking scam, contact your bank immediately. Banks will normally reimburse genuine victims of online banking fraud.

In addition, you should make sure you check the e-mail addresses of e-mails you receive from your bank. This blogger has often received e-mails from "banks" asking to "verify account data" only to look at the address and see that the e-mail is clearly not from who they say it is.

An another thing to consider is investing in identity theft protection. Most banks provide it, which gives you another added layer of security in data encryption. It is important to take any extra protection you can get if its an option.

Lastly, and I know this is a subject I've touched on a lot in the last few posts, but in terms of transfers over e-mail and text message it is essential to check who you are sending it to! It is entirely possible to be completely safe using internet transactions, but you have to use some common sense and make protection a priority.