How we safeguard our personal and financial data

Today's technology is so advance and updating continuously. Everyone is relying on the technology to search for information, do online transactions, send personal and financial data and etc. It is a greater use for education and business because it improves people’s lives and makes our life easier.

Internet is a public network connecting millions of computers throughout the world. Many of us do financial dealings through internet but we do not realize that those online criminals would do anything to steal our money using the internet. For an example, filling up the registration form via online to become a membership for that website in which they are interested in. By doing this, they have to provide personal information such as name, date of birth, gender, address, telephone, e-mail address, occupation and etc. Other examples are eBay, Amazon, and Citibank.

Personal Financial Information means any records containing a customer’s sensitive personal information whether in paper, electronic, or another form, that is handled by the institution. When the people make an online purchasing, they have to enter sensitive personal information. Therefore, sometimes our personal and financial information will be accessible by the public. For our safety on Internet, we must know some of precautions and safeguards.

Here are a few approaches on how to safeguard our personal and financial data:

*Do not reveal any personal information, especially password, to anyone. When the public accidentally know your password, they may or will going to access your Financial Data Center by entering your password without your consent. Therefore, we must always remember to log out properly before living the financial data center after using it.

*Closing the browser window. We have to close the browser window after using it to prevent other users reading our personal information.

*Password-protect your access. Use a strong password or pass-phrase to protect access to your data. It is hardly for the hackers to remember and has difficulty to access.

*Install antispyware and antivirus software. It is a must to install such software to clean computer and protect personal information and financial data, etc. For instance, Norton and Avast.

*Install firewall. Firewall program will help to prevent from hackers and viruses from entering into the computer. Today, most of the new computers come with firewalls integrated into their operating systems.

*Access control mechanism. It limits the actions that can be performed by an authenticated person or group and determines who can use the network resource and what resource can be used.

*Limit transportation and transmission of data. Do not transporting or transmitting sensitive or confidential data if it is not necessary to do so. For instance, do not use email or instant messaging to send your sensitive or confidential data. Even if it is necessary to send sensitive or confidential data, make sure that there is a high proper security level.

For more details can refer to the link below: http://www.msisac.org/awareness/news/2007-03.cfm

As a conclusion, it is very important for everyone to know about safeguard to prevent us from falling into the traps. Individuals should pay more attention on their personal and financial data because online hackers are everywhere.

Referred links:

http://www.msisac.org/awareness/news/2007-03.cfm

http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1491881

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

http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1202428911153