5 bad Habits that could result in a stolen identity

Few users behave with perfect cyber hygiene every time they log onto the internet. Maintaining impeccable security requires time and effort that many users do not have, and if a user has yet to experience a significant cyberattack, they may be more than happy to bend a few rules and increase their risk for the sake of convenience.

Unfortunately, even seemingly small bad habits can result in the loss of a user’s sensitive information. When cybercriminals have easy access to personally identifiable information (PII), they can and will steal a user’s identity, causing various and severe harm.

Cyber hygiene is important, and users who want to avoid succumbing to identity theft need to be careful to avoid the following bad habits that increase their risk:

Neglecting to Verify Financial Statements

The sooner an individual can recognize identity theft, the less damaging the effects of the crime will be. Thus, one of the best habits for individuals to adopt is a monthly review of their financial statements in search of fraudulent charges or other unauthorized activities. Individuals should track their purchases and other expenses throughout the month, perhaps by collecting receipts or else with the use of an app like Mint or YNAB. Then, once their monthly statements are available, individuals should take the time to make comparisons. Any discrepancies should be investigated through calls to financial institutions or businesses, and if many significant problems appear in a statement, individuals should freeze their accounts and notify the credit bureau of potential identity theft.

Providing Companies With Unnecessary Information

Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting businesses with cyberattacks in attempts to gain access to various types of sensitive data. Often, users’ personal information becomes compromised in data breaches, which means any information that users submit to businesses can be stolen by criminals and fuel identity theft attempts. Therefore, users need to be careful to provide companies with exceedingly limited personal information — only the barest amount of what they need to create accounts and utilize services appropriately. Users should get in the habit of asking companies why they might need certain data, like home addresses or phone numbers, and if a business cannot provide an adequate answer, users might search elsewhere for the services they need to keep their private information safe.

Oversharing on Social Media

Social media is a remarkable tool for connecting with loved ones near and far, but it can also be an incredible source of personal information for identity thieves. Many social media users forget to modify their privacy settings, which means all of their posts are visible to any other social media user. If these users also tend to overshare about themselves — using their true, full names, posting pictures of their homes and family members, and divulging facts about their pasts — cybercriminals can easily gather enough information to guess at passwords and security questions. Users need to be careful to maintain their social media privacy settings, and they should avoid posting in ways that could compromise their identity.

Sending Sensitive Information Via Email

Though email is ubiquitous, it is notoriously insecure. Still, many online users employ email to send and receive sensitive information, like copies of driver’s licenses, social security numbers, payment card info, and more. Whether contained in the text of the email or available as an attachment, information like this is easily accessed by cybercriminals, who can view email contents by attacking networks, devices, and other digital systems in a variety of ways. In addition to using ID theft protection tools within premium security suites that encrypt email messages, users should send sensitive information only through secure information portals.

Forgetting to Update Apps

Updating apps is one of the simplest and among the most effective cyber hygiene practices, and it helps users stay safe from identity theft. Over time, all applications develop vulnerabilities, which savvy cybercriminals can exploit to gain access to a user’s device and data. App developers release updates to close those vulnerabilities, but users must download and install those updates for them to be effective. Users who do not engage with updates are likely to experience a successful cyberattack, in which their personal data becomes available to a large number of identity thieves for many years to come.

PII is easily the most important data, and everyone should be doing everything they can to keep their PII safe. Fortunately, changing just a few bad habits could make a major difference in an individual’s risk of identity theft.