What Is Identity Theft?
Identity theft refers to a crime in which a hacker gains access to your information to commit fraud. Delinquents usually use your personal information to buy or rent properties, file fake tax returns, open new accounts or do other criminal things in your name. Fortunately, you can take actions to help avoid having your identity stolen. First, you will need to know how identity theft occurs and how to spot it.
How Does Identity Theft Happen?
There are several ways in which identity theft can happen to you. Hackers may get your personal information from a data security breach. Or, you may unintentionally disclose it through social media.
These people are waiting for an opportunity to intrude on your devices and steal your data online. Thus, it is essential to understand how cybercriminals take your information, and how to tackle it.
Phishing
Cybercriminals will try to access your information by setting up emails and websites from seemingly legitimate corporations. The purpose of these emails is to generate a state of emergency for you to follow a link and login to ”your account”. Keep this in mind: A legitimate company will never write and ask you for sensitive information or your login.
Public Wi-Fi
Even though public Wi-Fi is very useful in case of an emergency, keep in mind that it rarely encrypts data. That means that anyone connected to the same wi-fi and with some hacker knowledge can monitor your online activities. Consequently, the cybercriminal could commit identity theft if he or she intercepts your info.
Unencrypted Websites
You should definitively not use an unencrypted website. The URL must read “https.” Also, look out for the picture of a lock in the URL field, which means that it is secure.
The holiday season is a time of the year that identity thieves look forward to. When you are caught up in an online shopping frenzy, you may not pay attention to the security details. As you write your holiday checklist, give yourself a big gift: make it top priority to stay safe when shopping online.
Reach out the IT experts from OnePointSync to talk about protecting your data from getting stolen and other scams this holiday season, and throughout all the year.
We have a complete and comprehensive cybersecurity plan for small and medium-sized businesses in Denver.
