You’re on top of your monthly payments, you’ve avoided sinking into credit card debt and have been tucking away money into your savings for years, but the truth is you still can be a victim of identity theft.
This is no new or shocking tale, but after The Verizon Business Data Breach Investigations Report released a recent study, we figured it was time to remind you how to stay safe.
The study shows us that online identity theft is as big a crime as ever, and banks and other financial institutions are the main targets. 94% of all data compromised by cybercrime last year were from financial services companies. And it’s not always an outside crook doing the damage. Sometimes, or rather for 48% of the data breaches, insiders (i.e. evil bank employees) were to blame.
Effects of identity theft can be nightmarish and difficult to erase. But an avid LearnVester should be able to avoid becoming a statistic. While there is little we can do to prevent our financial data from being stolen in this way (from the bank’s servers), we can control how badly this theft can hurt us. We liked some of the advice CBS MoneyWatch posted.
Read below for some of their tips along with LV tid-bits for practical safeguards.
- Verify all of your statements.
- Change your passwords for your accounts often.
- Look into your bank’s security policies (for making sure that it’s you who is trying to access your online account).
- Be aware of “phishing” scams (online scams where bad guys pose as a bank of legitimate source and trick you into sharing personal information).
We love the convenience of online banking, but don’t let your guard down just because it’s easy. These sticky situations are tough financial blows, but LV is here to help.
