Tranter Banter

Hackers are just waiting for the right opportunity to access personal information and get into your accounts.  Look at what happened to President Bush a few weeks ago with a hacker getting into his personal account.  That hacker was able to view personal family photos, contacts and sensitive emails.  The hacker left his identity just to prove what he could do.

With the increase in use of smartphones and tablets, internet security should be a strong priority.  Here are some tips to try and minimize possible threats.  It should go without saying that strong anti-virus protection and a firewall are mandatory.

I never log into personal banking information from my smartphone, tablet or laptop or from a public wifi network.  This is just inviting trouble.  No matter how much security I use, I still do not access my bank accounts in this manner.  If my issue can’t wait, I pick up the phone and call my bank.  If the issue can wait, I’ll do my online banking from home later.

Create some strong passwords that are different for each account.   A great idea is to create something easy that only you will remember.   Such as the date the baby walked or the date you picked up your new puppy.   Combine that with your favorite place, for example, and you could come up with something pretty clever.   HawaiiaN!IslandS121012.  So my place would be the Hawaiian Islands and the puppy came on December 10, 2012.  Throw in a couple of capital letters to mix it up. I’m sure you get the idea.  Another idea is to remember a sentence “Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.” Take the first letter from each word  and create a unique word jajwuthtfapow.  Then mix it up a little to include caps and maybe throw in a symbol. JaJwuth*tfaPOW and you have something very difficult to guess.

If you can’t create your own security question, create a strong answer to a security question.   Try to answer in whole sentences.  For example, my first pet might have been named Fluffy.  I would create a security answer something like “My first pet was a kitty named Fluffy” or something like “My first employer was Montrose Home Bakery in California.”

Use different email addresses to log into your online accounts.  It is much harder for someone to try and hack your account if they don’t know which email address you may have used.

Finally, be careful of phishing attacks where potential hackers send you emails requesting private information.  Never, ever give out private information to anyone you don’t know.  Most reputable companies will never ask for that information through an email.  No matter how official the email looks, be suspicious.   If in doubt, call the company to see if the email really originated with them.