Steps you can take to improve your online safety
Cybercrime is expected to cost over $10 trillion in 2025. Last year, approximately 2.7 billion records were hacked in the National Public Data (NPD) breach, exposing data, including social security numbers. That breach included almost everyone in the U.S. and Canada. You may not be online, but your data is out there.
The risk is identity theft. Once data is breached, it’s sold to nefarious actors on the dark web. If enough information about one person can be put together, it becomes a fairly trivial task to open bank accounts, loans and credit cards in your name. Bad actors might use your cable provider or steal electricity. The possibilities are endless, but there are protections you can put in place.
- Freeze credit and check credit reports. The first and most important thing you can do is to make sure your credit accounts at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion have freezes put on them. You can lift a freeze temporarily if a company needs to check your credit.
- Email. Many scams arrive through your inbox.
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- Unsubscribe when you get an email from a reputable company that you just don’t want to receive. When you purchase something online, always uncheck the box that allows them to email you.
- Limit email sharing. Don’t fall for the “offers” that sweeten the deal if you just share your email. Ten percent off isn’t worth it. Always think twice before giving your email address to anyone.
- If you no longer use a company’s services, close the account. It’s just one more entry to your personal data.
- Never put PII (personally identifiable information) in an email or attach documents containing your address, phone, SSN, account numbers, etc. There are safe portals and ways to encrypt files when needed.
- Use cc sparingly to protect others’ email accounts.
- Don’t open emails or texts that contain only a link or a picture, even if you recognize the sender. Make senders give you a clue that they really sent something.
- Always check the sending email address to verify who the sender really is. Be careful because jane.23!@gmail.com looks a lot like jane.231@gmail.com.
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- Identity theft monitoring. I used to think I was savvy enough to be safe and avoided spending money on identity theft monitoring services. Now, with all the data breaches happening, I have become a strong proponent. You can be very aware of scam methods, but your information is out there, and you are not in control of what happens to it. Plus, there are always new and more sophisticated scams surfacing.
- Shredding. You might not think your trash is vulnerable, but it can be. I recommend shredding anything containing sensitive information.
- Surfing the web. People are often online. The younger you are, the truer this is. If you visit websites with lots of ads and follow links to other articles and websites, chances are your online travel is being tracked, either for marketing purposes or worse.
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- Don’t click on ads
- Use incognito mode
- Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
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- Passwords and two-factor authentication are very important ways to protect access to your accounts.
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- Be sure to change your important passwords at least once a year and use 14 or more characters.
- Having codes sent to a phone might be a pain but it really does increase your security.
- Every password should be unique, so if one is breached, a hacker can’t get into other accounts.
- Using a password manager is almost unavoidable when using unique and long passwords. It will help keep you sane.
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Who is vulnerable?
Everyone. It used to be far easier to spot questionable links, scams, and phishing emails and some of us are more careful than others. Artificial intelligence (AI) is leveling the playing field for hackers. It helps improve language skill, and makes it easier to profile you, especially if you are active on social media. The cows are already out of the barn for most of us. Now we have to be vigilant.
How can a Daily Money Manager (DMM) help?
Daily Money Managers can help protect clients by doing some of the online work for them. DMMs cannot keep clients from clicking in the wrong place or sharing sensitive information with the wrong person. Primarily, a DMM can enhance online safety by educating clients, noticing odd transactions, and helping them recover if an account has been hacked or a credit card replaced. DMMs can also assist with selecting an identity monitoring service.
Janis Harlow is a Daily Money Manager and founder and owner of Paper Tigress Personal Finance Care
