Thanks for voting!By Rob Weaver, Head of ING DIRECT’s IT Security
Last in a series on protecting yourself online. October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month.
Phew, you’ve done it. You’re online and confident you’re protected against all the Cyber bad guys out there, ID theft, smart security practices, and protecting your PC (viruses included). Congrats, you’ve built your own personal security zone. So now what? Here are some other proactive steps you can take to get your personal information off the public radar.
Use online banking to eliminate sensitive account information circulating in the mail. Thoroughly shred mail – especially credit card bills, statements, and offers for preapproved credit – before you throw it away. Cross-cut shredding is more effective than strip shredding. Choose organizations with an “opt-out” privacy policy.
We know online security can seem like a hassle, and sometimes a lot of work. That is, at first. Once you’ve synced your habits with your machine’s security, your Internet browser updates and all the application ‘patches’ - that’s the tough stuff. We can’t protect you against carpal tunnel, but when you’re surfing the medical site for your symptoms, you can rest easy knowing that your info is safe.
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Yes, contrary to what FBI director Robert Mueller has said, online banking is safe if one takes the appropriate precautions (probably safer than walking around with a checkbook, or getting bank statements through the mail). The problem, though, is that some folks just need to be made more aware of protection technologies, which is the point of Cyber Security Awareness Month in the first place (at Thawte, where I work, we’re pleased about the initiative). For example, if a bank site uses Extended Validation SSL like ING does, there’s a built in anti-phish mechanism: Hackers can’t spoof the green url bar, so if you’re asked for information on a site that doesn’t show it, it’s probably a fake. Parts of online security can be tough, but others, like spotting green url bars, can become second nature pretty quickly.
I would have to disagree with the statement, “We have done it and covered all holes, now we are safe to surf anything”. No!! Monitoring security is continued effort. You just built the fort surrounding yourself to secure your ID and PC. But you still have to guard the fort by continually updating the softwares and also try to wary of visiting sites which you think might have phishy stuff.
It’s you, you alone can watch you back and nobody will even those monitoring services will only come so far. So be vigilant all the time. That’s my 2cents.