The use of technology has certainly made our lives more efficient but not without the need to be smart and careful on how we protect our personal information. We have comprised a list of seven simple steps you can take today to add protection to your online security against being the victim of cyber-crimes and identity theft. This is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of steps to provide additional security but rather simple and common-sense tools and suggestions that you can utilize today and are available to protect your online security.
Identify Theft and Cyber Crime —
7 Simple things you can do today to protect yourself
1. Utilize Multi-Factor (2-step) authentication which provides extra log-in security protection when accessing sites that have access to your personal information. Most if not all financial sites (banks, credit cards, brokerage, etc.), social media, email platforms and mobile devices, provide multi-factor authentication. If any of your platform providers don’t offer multi-factor authentication, we recommend not using them.
2. Don’t use the same password on multiple websites and don’t store passwords on your computer browser. Consider using a password manager to securely store your passwords. How to choose and utilize a password manager: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/best-password-manager/.
3. Consider using multiple email addresses. (1) Use one unique (not utilizing your name) email address that is only used to access your financial accounts. Use this unique email address to access financial accounts, and not to communicate with your friends or buy stuff on the internet. (2) Use a second unique email address to only communicate with friends and family (3) Use a third unique email that is used to make purchases or accessing information on the internet. By doing the above, you should see a reduction in overall spam and phishing attempts to the email accounts that are important.
4. Protect your mobile device/accounts. Log in to your mobile provider’s web portal (i.e.., ATT, Verizon, etc.); if your username is like your name, email address or usernames that you use on other sites, consider creating a new username that is unique to your mobile provider. If you are not already using a pin or pass-phrase to prevent criminals from porting your phone to a new carrier or swapping your SIM card for yours create one now. Contact your mobile carrier for more details.
5. Protect your computer, tablet and mobile device from malicious software. Keep your operating system up to date. Consider using anti-virus software and keep both the software and virus definitions up to date. To review the best anti-virus software: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/best-antivirus/
6. We’d recommend not accessing financial accounts through an unsecure Wi-Fi network (that might be available at your hotel or in a coffee shop).
7. For existing clients; ask about enrolling in our complimentary “my[fi]” Credit Monitoring Service offered by Experian and offered through De[fi]ned Wealth Management LLC. To learn more, contact Joe, Chris or Mariya by email at info@definedwm.com; or by phone at 503-444-7895.
Feel free to book time with us by going to this link: https://definedwm.as.me.
Sources: Fidelity Investments; Defined Wealth Management LLC; Orion Advisor Technology
