How To Prevent Hacking and Identity Theft

Hello "Saint Nexusisus Teen Support Subscribers, 

 

Online users are now taking advantage of Social Media on the "Information Super Highway" which has made conducting business virtually impossible for any of us to perform simple everyday task. Businesses, coworkers, family, and friends are encouraging us to use their preferred method of communication through websites, or various social media outlets.

However, social media sites such as LinkedIn have encountered their user's account information exposed through hacking. Many users naively provide predators who prey on social media sites our legal names, birthday, photo's of ourselves, birthplace, current residence, relatives, close friends, employment history, and the educational institutions we attended. We have literally made all this valuable information accessible for public view.

Governmental agencies, banks, utility companies, and 70% of businesses prefer that we contact them via their website. Exchanging valuable information such as our birthday, social security number, driver's license number, address, and phone numbers online. We are encouraged to conduct our business with customer service representatives during online live chats, or via email. Placing all our valuable identifiable information at risk for Identity Theft.

Cost effective online shopping forces consumers to provide retail sites with our credit card information to complete purchases on their websites. For most of us the thought of having to do so is absolutely frightening. Many retailers website's security certificates may appear to look shady, and a little iffy... if not allot iffy. We all have witnessed serious security breaches into retailers customer's credit card information... such as Target, and The Home Depot. Millions of online users, and self-pay checkout customer's credit card information was stolen. Leaving customer's valuable credit card information up for grab ruining their credit, and identity.

We then have the worst of all predatory online offenders, which is online Cyber Bullying. These trolls roam on various websites looking to harass, and stalk website subscribers on their comment sections. Trolls often hack into our social media accounts if they can find any personal identifiable information. Such as our legal names, or email addresses. Once they have acquired this information it leaves website subscribers vulnerable to be sent root viruses via email ...in which to hack into their computers. Exposing website visitor's private, and identifyable  information from their personal computers on display  for public viewing.

Nothing is fool-proof, but we can make it extremely difficult for online predators to bully us, hack our online accounts, and steal our identities by using these precautionary tips for online users.                                             

1. Always create multiple email accounts using separate email addresses for personal, work, and social media. Never open unidentifiable emails that may tempt you by saying you won something, or that your address is required by FedEx, or other carriers to ship your package. These emails have root viruses attached that can destroy your entire computer's hard drive.

2. Never use your legal name, birthday, or location on email accounts that are dedicated accounts specifically for social media use only.

3. Never make all of your social media account information public... this information should only be shared with friends.

4. Never post your Profile, or Profile photo's for public viewing.

5. Try to accept only friend request or invites from family members, known friends, and their friends. This would consist of friend request from your friends close friends who would be socializing within the same social circles of known friends.

6. When conducting business with agencies, or company's that required you to enter identifiable information clear your browser history, and cookies often. Cookies saved in your browser history allows websites to view every site that you have visited before visiting their site. This is common practice used by websites to advertise to you specific products that you prefer. Their purpose is to overwhelm website users with advertisement pop-ups from your previous searches, and related website visits. Cookies are often referred to as footprints. They allow other websites to look into your search history, and follow your user habits as to where you have visited or frequent often. However, cookies can place your software at risk to acquire viruses. This is because many websites may be infected with malicious viruses once clicked onto their site they can pickup valuable account information through your browser.

7. NOTHING IS FREE in life. If the link says free download, or the word "free" is attached ...do not click onto such links by avoiding tempting free websites. Most are Trojan viruses that mimic legitimate sites gathering all your password information for future use.

8. If you click onto a link and you hear a siren, or a flashing pop-up that states you must call the phone number listed DON'T. If you find that your computer has frozen, it's because you have already acquired a virus. DO NOT CALL THE THAT NUMBER! This is a criminal scam that frightens the user into calling the listed phone number on the screen. A person then answers pretending to be a technical support person for Windows, or Mac that will sweep your computer free of the virus. The person will then ask to remotely access your computer in order repair it. However, their real intention is to install additional viruses which will allow them to steal all your passwords, and expose personal files. Finally, slowing your computer down by corrupting valuable space ruining your entire hard drive. Unfortunately, the virus is already in your hard-drive... immediately contact your software company Tech Support to remove the virus. Report this crime, and the link if possible to the FCC at https://www.fcc.gov/ or tel:+18882255322.

9. Change your passwords every 60 days, and do not use common passwords such as birthdays, phone numbers, children names or addresses. A strong password should consist of upper, and lower case alphabets, numbers, and symbols. If possible set a second password with a security question which you would only know the answer to. Another option is to have a text message sent to your cell phone that consist of a one time pass code, which must be entered to access your account. In your account settings set your account security to "send an email" if your account is accessed from an unregistered device. Never allow your browser to remember your passwords. ALWAYS logout when leaving a site, and never share account passwords with others.

10. When shopping online try to shop with retailers that accept PayPal. PayPal securely saves, and links your address, credit cards, and financial institution routing numbers to your PayPal account. PayPal allows you to make purchases by adding funds into your PayPal account from your checking or savings accounts, draw funds directly from your checking account for purchases, transfer funds from your PayPal account into your checking or savings accounts, and transfer your PayPal account funds into others PayPal accounts. PayPal also encourages retailers to resolve issues concerning purchases that have been disputed by the customer. If the retailer refuses to refund, or exchange the customer's purchase during the required mediation period per PayPal. PayPal will refund the customer's entire purchase price back into your PayPal account... after the mediation expiration date. This is only if the dispute has not been resolved between the retailer, and customer. The retailer is then held responsible by PayPal to reimburse them for the refund provided back to their customer. PayPal also offers pay after delivery in which the retailer is paid after they have received a delivery confirmation for your parcel. This service provides the customer 14 days after date of purchase before the funds are drawn from your account. If you must use your credit card Do Not allow websites to save your credit card information to your account. Remember to clear your browser history, and cookies before visiting other websites if your credit card information was used.

Hopefully, these safety tips will result in leaving you more confident about using social media, conducting personal business, and making purchases online.

Tser