Beyond the Basics: 5 Advanced Strategies to Secure Your Online Identity
In our fast-paced world – we are increasingly conducting more and more of our lives online. From paying our credit cards, viewing investments or bank accounts, connecting with friends and family and so on. I wrote an article about this last spring with five of the best ways to protect your identity online and they are still some of the most tried and true ways to protect yourself and are worth reiterating –
- Freeze your credit
- Use a password manager
- Review your credit report annually
- Use only secure websites and wi-fi
- Use your credit card when making online purchases
However, we always want to continue being vigilant in protecting ourselves online so here are 5 MORE ways to protect yourself online
Adjust the privacy settings on social media – Make it hard on the hackers to access not only passwords but also other personal information by setting your accounts to private or even limiting access to what certain friends can see. How many security questions could someone answer about you by looking at your social media? A lot of common information is available if someone was looking for it – your age/what year you were born, your mother’s maiden name, the town in which you were born, your high school mascot. I try to choose security questions that are either my opinion or something that no one would know the answer to such as “what was your favorite stuffed animal?” so the only person that could possibly answer my security questions would be my younger sister
Use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) –Two-Factor Authentication makes it more difficult for a hacker to gain access to your accounts by sending an additional verification method most commonly by sending a code via email or text. Most online stores and purchases require 2FA but you can also turn it on for logging into email or social media accounts which add a level of protection to your overall online security.
Update your software regularly – Although a simple tip, it is still incredibly important to make sure you are keeping up with all software updates for your computer and phone. These regular updates are going to have important security protections that are up to date with any new types of viruses or malware. I know it’s easy to hit the “Remind me later” button, don’t put it off for too long or else you are leaving yourself vulnerable to various types of security breaches
Use an Identity Theft Protection Monitor – Consider subscribing to an ongoing identity theft protection service such as LifeLock or IdentityGuard. It will monitor the availability of your private information (i.e SSN, phone number, Driver’s License number) on the internet as well as the dark web and can give you a heads up if someone is trying to use your identity by monitoring if any of your information is being used somewhere new/unusual.
Beware of phishers! With technology growing faster than ever – that also means the sophistication of hackers and people looking to steal your information is also becoming more difficult to spot. If you are suspicious of an email that is asking you to verify private information or an email that looks like it’s from a friend or co-worker that seems a little off, proceed with caution –
- Before you click on a link to verify personal information from what appears to be your bank or some other institution you can hover over the link to see if the full website address and confirm whether it is or isn’t legitimate. Also look for the “https” in the website address to confirm the website is secure
- Check the email address – oftentimes these phishing schemes are coming from emails that look like a legitimate email but if you look at the full email address is often reveals that it is from a bogus or weird email address. Think twice before clicking on a link or giving personal information over the phone from someone purporting to be a government agency or something similar.
These are just a few ways to further protect your identity and decrease the likelihood of you having to deal with any kind of identity theft issue, which I can say from personal experience, is difficult and frustrating to untangle. I’d love to hear any tips you personally use or recommend to further strengthen your online security and overall identity protection and I’ve also included a few articles and resources below for further reading on the subject.
Why I Pay for Identity Theft Insurance
Who are the 3 Major Credit Bureaus?
