Double Check When Protecting Your Identity Online

" Cybermonday's going to be one of the biggest shopping holidays of the year", said Todd Feinman, CEO of Identity Finder software, "and the problem is the hackers are going after as many people's identities as they can at the same time. So people need to be extra careful putting their credit card information online AND saving things to their computer like an email receipt after they purchase something."

It's very hard to make sure no personal information is left around on your computer.
One thing you might want to do before and after shopping is use the software of IdentityFinder.com. Identify Finder helps people search everywhere on a computer to see if any personal information exists in an unprotected manner. It searches for social security numbers and credit card numbers. Software like Identity Finder makes sure there is no unprotected instances of personal information left anywhere.

Identity Finder has a free edition, available on the website, that allows people to search their entire computer, email messages and attachments for any personal information. This way if they ever got a virus or spyware, the information isn't there to be stolen.

Secure information can be stored inside of files. It could be on an application they might have filled out or email messages where they might have received an email with their receipt. So Identity Finder looks for it and if it finds it then helps people shred it, secure it or scrub that information out of the documents.

Stay vigilant in keeping your online activity secure.

" When you sign up to a new website to purchase something , you might have to register", Feinman continues, "when you register make sure you're using a very secure password, use as strong a password as possible with as many letters and different characters as possible and make sure it's not a word in the dictionary.

"People are going to be searching for as many deals as possible so they might go to a website that has the cheapest price but it's not really a store they're familiar with. Be very careful that you're always purchasing something with SSL which is the padlock in your web browser that tells you you're going to a secure website. Also make sure it's the website you intended to go to and make sure that if you haven't heard of them before, make sure a friend has heard of them.

" Another new idea is to use a one-time credit card which is something that expires after you use it. If it's it's a website that's not real, thieves would only get the credit card you use one time and one time only.

What is a one-time credit card? According to Feinman it's a credit card you can get for free from your bank. Go to their website and use your normal credit card to sign in then get a one-time use credit card that expires after the one-time use. This at least, limits your exposure. If you use it on a website that isn't real they actually can't steal much besides that one-time use credit card.

Other ways to protect yourself.

Don't shop on public computers. if you're in a hotel on vacation or you're in an airport, don't use that terminal to shop online, don't enter your social security, credit cards, or passwords on computers. They could have key loggers that steal you're information.

Always update your anti-spyware definitions. Always make sure your software is up to date.
Check your credit report from time to time. Make sure no new credit cards have been opened under your name. Make sure no large bills have been run up.

www.identityfinder.com
www.protectmyid.com
www.consumercompare.org
www.identitytheft.com