How to protect your online self and bank account from being hacked

The Risk

You can be as careful as you like, eventually you’ll click on something you should not have.

The scams are getting smarter.

You’ll get a request, video, document from someone that you really trust.

I received a document a year ago from my lawyer, from his email address, saying that I’m required in court. Luckily I rang him first, his email had been hacked the day before, and the email was a scam.

Getting your Facebook account hacked might not be too terrifying, until you realise once it’s hacked you can’t get it back.

If your email get’s hacked, they can quickly use it to reset all your passwords, on all your accounts. And then your paypal account and bank accounts might end up at risk from identity theft.

The Solution

So how can you protect yourself ?

I’ve heard about strong passwords, and changing passwords, and having unique passwords – but these are all hackable by phishing and clicking on the wrong link.

The solution is ‘2 factor authentication’. This is a complicated term, but it stops your login being used on untrusted devices. So they need both a password and a trusted device. Basically this stops all hacks in their tracks.

You should protect anything you use regularly, and you definitely need to protect the email address you use for password resets (which is usually your main email address).

Here’s some common ones you’ll need, use google searches to find others

• google (gmail, androids, Samsung, etc) https://www.google.com.au/landing/2step/
• apple – if you have an iphone/ipad   https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204915
• apple – I also suggest enabling ‘find my iphone’ ‘backup’ and ‘keychain’ (the bottom 3 items in settings / iCloud.
• facebook – it’s called ‘login approvals’  https://www.facebook.com/help/148233965247823
• facebook – enable ‘code generator’ as well (which is in security, just below the ‘login approvals’)
• paypal – use your mobile phone sms to verify each login – https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_register-security-key-mobile
• bank accounts – I have all online transactions approved by SMS codes to my phone. I enabled this in at the bank branch.

 

By Scott Farrell on November 18th, 2016 , Follow @scott_WordPress Tweet to @scott_WordPress