Guide to Protect Identity Theft and Computer from Viruses, Malwares and Trozans on the Internet

When we spend most of our time on computer, it is our duty to protect the computer and laptop from all sorts of filthy things that are happening everyday on the internet. A little time and precaution on your part will help you a long way keeping your system protected from the identity theft.

This is information age and information counts more than anything else. It depends how critical information you have. Every IT savvy is after some sort of information. In this race, hackers and fraudsters have also joined and they are in the look out for some different kind of information, personal information of credit card or internet banking related users. They are always on the look for critical personal information, whether it is pure demographic or personal. They manipulate so harvested information in various ways. They will either sell personal information in exchange for money or use it for spying or fraudulently stealing money from credit cards account.

While big banking and financial institutions have deployed all the system in place to avoid data theft and take due care protecting their computer networks using latest and greatest gadgets, it is somewhat difficult for ignorant computer surfers and casual users to protect their information from the eyes of hackers and fraudsters. It is of utmost importance to save personal information from being hacked or passed on to commercial companies for advertisements. Hackers use number of techniques to hack important information. Some of which may be:

• Phishing
• Smishing
• ATM skimming (Frauds)
• Identity Theft
• Pharming or spoofing

Most of the frauds take place due to carelessness and leakage of critical personal information via emails. Hackers will generally send emails purporting to be from ebay, paypal or banking institutions and ask for verifying information or clicking certain links in their mail. When stealth link in the email is clicked, the hidden script or software will install itself and start its work.

As a rule, accredited institutions will never ask you for your personal information. (Since you are already registered with them and they already have your information on their record). So you should be on alerts whenever such an email arrives in your mailbox. With the built-in facility provided in the email clients, you can read full path of such an email and if considered fraudulent, can be forwarded to the concerned company for further investigation.

Tips to Protect Identity Theft

1. Keep your information confidential. Never ever disclose your personal information relating to credit cards, social security card etc. to unscrupulous persons.

2. Avoid transmitting important personal information via email.

3. Never let anyone stand behind you while you are transacting in ATM cabin. Some persons shamelessly keep standing when others are in ATM cabin. This practice needs to be curbed.

4. Make sure that that credit card processing system of the company with whom you are making online transaction, has secure and safe server. Reputed merchants use https:// (secure site) for high security in online transactions.

5. If you have a reasonable doubt that identity theft or fraud has taken place, immediately inform local police and concerned institutions. Keep a record of all communication.

Other Areas of Computer Vulnerability

Many a time, emails are infected with unscrupulous attachments. These attachments hide spyware, adware, keyloggers, wiruses or trojans. Once the attachment is opened, the script or software start working in stealth way in background. The malicious program automatically forward keyboard and browser activities of users to hackers or companies. It is therefore very important that anti-spyware and anti-virus software is installed and kept up-to-date. Rule of thumb is never open any emails or attachments coming from unknown sources and strangers.