Easy identity theft prevention

How many of you bank, shop, or do other business online? There are at least 4 million Defense Department employees who access their pay records only online. Even financial data stored offline can be at risk on computers that are also used on the Internet. As one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States, identity theft is a concern for everyone.

A criminal who gains access to your bank or credit card accounts or personal information can wreak havoc on her credit and leave you with the bag. Protecting your personal data at home and online isn't too painful, and it's worth reducing your risk with a reasonable level of effort.

Before we get into the computer and online environment, let's take a quick look at the other risks in your home. Your trash can and mailbox are prime targets for identity thieves. Bills, old checks, financial statements, offers of credit, the list goes on. All of these documents should be shredded with a cross-cut shredder before disposal and mail should never be left in the mailbox for long. Arrange for someone to pick up the mail if you are going to be away from home for more than one day. In short, anything with your full name combined with any other sensitive information should be shredded before being thrown away.

Phishing and social engineering are methods for you to disclose your data to a criminal by making them believe that the criminal represents an organization or interest with access or rights to your information. Any phone call you receive from someone asking for your personal information or credit card numbers should be suspicious. Request a way to call them back through the organization's published numbers, and verify that the number is associated with the organization before proceeding. Be suspicious of good deals that come to you out of the blue over the phone or through any other means. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Now for your computer, there are a few things you need to do here. Your online activities pose the greatest risk. You need a hardware or a good software firewall. You need good antivirus and antispyware software. Software versions will need regular updates to stay ahead of hackers.

You should also take some precautions with your own personal online and offline habits. Online, you must use different and complex passwords for each identity-related account you access. You should set your browser security settings as high as possible for general browsing and avoid clicking on advertising links from unknown vendors, or links in emails that come from unknown senders or are mismatched to the known sender. Never follow links in an email purporting to be from your creditors or financial institutions asking you to validate your account information. Call them instead, if you think it's valid. Most financial or credit organizations will never send you an email unless you have requested to receive account updates. The last thing to consider online is who you are doing business with. Be careful when providing your credit card numbers online. While ensuring that the site is secure is an absolute bare minimum, it is also necessary to ensure that the provider is honest and keeps your data safe.

Offline, you should protect any financial, health, insurance or other documents that contain your personal information by using encryption and password protection. Most financial software packages have this feature built in. Use it in conjunction with Windows Encrypted Folders to protect your private data from undetected spyware or short-term physical access to your computer by a criminal. Do not use the automatic logon features of Windows and always use complex passwords that are at least eight characters long, containing numbers, letters, and upper and lower case letters. Never use a common word, name or other easily guessed password. Something like T8$f~lly can be easy to remember, though very hard to guess and extremely slow to hack. Finally, change all your passwords frequently and use a secure password manager to keep them organized.

The last thing you need to do is check your bills and credit. Keep an eye on your financial account activities and credit history. If you notice something is wrong, call the financial organizationor to the credit reporting agency and report it, change your passwords, and congratulate yourself for catching it early.

My own Yahoo account was recently compromised. While this wasn't an expensive identity theft situation, it did put my name in some pretty nasty low-level spam operations. A password change was all it took to close the activity.

Follow the instructions I've provided and you'll reduce your risk of identity theft and fraud-related debts to almost zero. Keep in mind that if you have Bill Gate's level of assets, you are in a different class of high-risk targets and need to hire a security team to manage those risks and lower your insurance rates.