Do’s and Don’t’s for Keeping Your Financial Info Safe Online

Many services, like financial and transactional services, are moving online. While this is great for convenience, technology changes the dangers of losing financial information. Phishing scams, malware, and viruses make it easy for thieves to steal your bank statements and personal information. Being safe online is incredibly important so we put together some do’s and don’ts for keeping your financial information safe online.

Don’t Fall for Scams

Most people have gotten phone calls or emails from suspicious people claiming to be the IRS and demanding an immediate payment by means of a Western Union transfer. Those types of calls and emails are easy to see as scams. Yet scammers are getting better at seeming more believable. Government and financial institutes will almost never call or email you for financial or social information, so don’t reply with this information to emails asking for this. If you get an email that seems off, do not click on attached links. They could install malware on your computer.

Do Use Secure Passwords (and Change Them)

You should pick a password that is hard to guess. Your password shouldn’t be ‘password’ or ‘123456’. If you are using simple passwords like these, you are basically giving away your information to people. Add special characters, upper and lower case letters, and numbers to a hard-to-guess password. Never use the same password across multiple websites and change your passwords every six months for added protection.

Don’t Store Sensitive Information on Websites

Sites like Paypal and Google Checkout tend to be very secure sites for your financial information. And there is an easy way to see if a site is secure or unsecure. If you look at the top of your screen, you will see ‘https://’. That ‘s’ at the end means that the site is secure so you can safely store info on that site.

Do Protect Your Computer

When there is a new update for your computer, install it as quickly as possible. These updates protect your computer from the new malware and viruses that have been detected. Also, install a trusted malware protection service onto your devices.

Protecting your financial information doesn’t have to be hard. Doing these simple things can help make your financial information safe online. If you have any questions about keeping your info safe, or if you feel as your financial information is in the wrong hands, contact us and we can help you.