How To Safeguard Our Personal And Financial Data






In this 21st century, people nowadays are moving towards the advancement of technology such as the internet. They are relying on it to perform their daily tasks as it is easy and convenient. For example like e-banking, e-business, e-commerce and many more. However, news has reported that a lot of computer user’s financial and personal data are being stolen by the outsiders. Therefore, in order to protect the data from being hacked or stolen, here are some of the tips that computer users can follow.

1. Set up a password or PIN number.
Users are advised to set up a password or PIN number on their personal computer before they can access into the main page. This is to avoid any unauthorized people coming in trying to steal any private and confidential data from the computer. Try to create a password that is special and not easy to identify like our name, date of birth and others. A combination of capital and normal letters, numbers, and symbols will offer us more security.

2. Try not to save any personal and financial data in the computer.
Users are advised to not to save any important personal or financial data in the computer such as private photos, bank account number and ATM PIN number, credit card number and others. This is to avoid the thieves from stealing any data from the computer if the computer is being stolen by them.

3. Avoid using public computer and remember to sign out after entering into a particular website.
Users are advice to avoid using public computer in the cyber café or in the restaurant because all these computers are being used by the public. Thus, anyone who accesses the computer may have the possibility to obtain our personal data and eventually use it for personal benefits. Furthermore, users are advised to sign out once they have finish visiting the website such as facebook, friendster, hotmail, yahoo mail to avoid any data stealing.

4. Don’t leave the computer while any confidential information is display on the screen.
Users should save their confidential information first and keep it properly into the file first before user leave their desk after working hours. This is to prevent any person who may break into the office with an intention to steal the data when no one is in the office at night.

5. Set up proper firewall and install an antivirus in our computer.
Computer users should install a proper firewall and antivirus to safeguard our personal and financial data from being stolen by other people. There is a lot of antivirus software that we can purchase in the market such as Norton, AVG, Kaspersky and many more. Although we can download some of the antivirus software for free on the internet, these antivirus software can only be used for a limited period of time only. Besides, the original antivirus software is worth to buy as it protects our computer better for a longer period.

6. Review monthly Bank and credit card statements.
Credit card holder are advised to review on their bank and credit card statements frequently to check whether there is any abnormal transactions or mystery transactions taken place or not. If such incident happens, user should immediately report the issue to the related bank so that further investigation can be taken.

7. Frequently change our password.
Users if possible are encouraged to change their password frequently so that this will strengthen the security of the user’s personal and financial data from being stolen.


Reference:
1. http://www.fool.com/personal-finance/general/2006/09/23/safeguard-your-financial-life.aspx

2. http://www.southwaleslibdems.org.uk/speeches/000091/safeguarding_personal data.html


2 comments:

cai xuan said...

Yup.. these are the prevention and safeguards we are using now.. but still there are loopholes.. hopefully we have a more advanced system that can prevent the hackers, worms and all sorts of threats entirely!! haha

Anonymous said...

Better safe than sorry. Take the threat seriously and install the safeguards and take all the required precautions. Identity thefts is now a serious problem. There are so much unprotected data on the internet that can be used by cyber criminals. Do not make it easy for them.

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