How Cybersecurity and Privacy Affect Us All

Data security is a hot topic these days, and with good reason. Whether it’s news of the latest corporate data breach, hackers in foreign countries, or legislation aimed at protecting citizens’ privacy, we’re living in a world that is clamoring to keep up with the technology… and with criminals.

But while we wait for the government to take action and the business world to catch up, there’s no reason we can’t take action ourselves. Cybersecurity all starts with the behaviors that fuel your online activity, and with the right attention to what you share, you can protect yourself from a lot of the threats.

1. Oversharing – One of the most common culprits in cybercrimes can be oversharing. Whether it’s giving out too much of your personal data to entities that don’t really need it, or posting far too many pieces of your privacy puzzle on social media, oversharing gives criminals the information they need to connect the dots and steal your identity.

   Whenever you’re asked for your personal information, ask yourself why the entity needs it and what they plan to do with it. Have you paid attention to how many stores now ask for an email address when you go to checkout at the register? Of course, they’re collecting it for marketing purposes, and truthfully, if you already shop there, you might actually want to receive updates and coupons. But another option is to go to the company’s website yourself and sign up to receive these emails. You’re not risking others overhearing you, and you’ll know where you entered your data. That kind of defensive habit can make you stop and think about who you give your data to.

   Online, are you giving out more information than strangers need to see? One of the more common social media mistakes for female Facebook users is to post their maiden names, as in “Jane Turner Smith.” This is obviously so friends who knew her as Jane Turner can find her. But when that information is coupled with the common practice of posting news and photos from your child’s birthday—“My little boy turned six today! He’s growing up so fast!”—you just provided the entire internet with your son’s birthdate and his mother’s maiden name. The pieces of his identity are coming together, all because you gave out information that people really don’t need to have.

2. Securing your network – Whether it’s from home, on the road, or from a mobile device, are you accessing sensitive information like your bank account over an unsecured Wi-Fi network? Once you’ve accessed that account, are you logging out completely and closing your browser? Or did you just go to a different webpage and continue surfing the web?

   If you don’t know the network you’re on, don’t use sensitive accounts. Even your email account can be under threat from a hacker. If a cyber thief accesses your email account and then changes the password, he can lock you out of your email; from there, he goes to all of your accounts, simply clicks “forgot my password” to receive the email to reset it, and changes your Amazon account, your banking account, your credit card account… and you can’t stop him. You may not even realize he’s done it until it’s too late.

3. Monitoring your statements – Many of us receive paperless statements now from a variety of sources, and it can be easy to overlook them. They’re sitting safely in our inboxes, right? But there are couple of problems there, too.

   First, if a thief accesses your email, then those statements contain a lot of information. You need to monitor them, look them over carefully, and destroy them securely, just as you would if they’d been mailed to your house. If you do need them later, download them to your computer and save them on an external hard drive to keep prying eyes away.

   But while you’re monitoring any incoming statements, make sure you’re looking for suspicious activity. This holds true for any kind of statement or report, not just your bank or credit card statement. Check your utility bills to make sure someone hasn’t opened up a utility account somewhere else. Check your tax and medical statements to make sure you’re the only one using your identity. And finally, check that credit report throughout the year to make sure nothing funny is going on in your name.

It may seem time consuming to protect yourself, especially if you can’t rely on others to protect your data for you. But by developing good overall habits with regards to your personal information, you can do a lot to keep yourself from becoming a victim of a cybercrime.