Recent hacks of debit card transactions and financial information at Home Depot and Target have resulted in more than $200 million in losses.
Companies are scrambling for solutions to safeguard customer information, but hacks will continue undeterred, both in merchants’ on-site point of sales systems (i.e., in-store registers) and through online payment portals. Each year, the FBI estimates the financial cost of cybercrimes to total more than $781 million, impacting millions of people around the world.
Unfortunately, anyone who has access to the Internet is at risk of becoming the victim of cybercrime. With the holiday season fast approaching and online sales expected to skyrocket, online shoppers need to be all the more vigilant.
The University of Alabama’s Dr. Diana Dolliver shares some steps people can take to safeguard their financial information and prevent themselves from becoming a victim of cybercrime.
- Check your financial information on a regular basis.
- Change your PIN numbers on a regular basis.
- Routinely request new debit and credit cards from your financial institutions – at least once per year.
- Limit the number of online payments you make, and limit the number of websites that store your credit or debit card information.
- Only complete online payments on secured (https) websites from a secured (password protected) device. Using open wifi networks gives bad guys an easy way to capture your information during online transactions.
- Never open an email or link in an email from someone you don’t know.
- Never share your passwords or other personal information with an untrusted source. When in doubt, call the institution that you think may be asking for the information to clarify the situation.
- Don’t post too much information on social media sites. Protect your image and your personal information by not making it easy for people who don’t know you to get to know you or your daily activities.
- Use security software on your devices, and perform routine checks to ensure your systems are bug-free.
- Finally, report any suspicious activity or instances of victimization to the FBI’s Internet Crimes Complaint Center (IC3) at http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx.
Dolliver is an assistant professor in UA’s department of criminal justice.
