10 Great Tips for Identity Theft Protection

1. When in doubt...Shred (paper docs that is)
2. Don’t carry your Social Security card in your wallet (does anyone seriously do that?)
3. Check financial statements carefully each month for fraudulent activity
4. Use numbers and letters when creating your passwords
5. Install a wiping program on your Smartphone
6. Do not use the same passwords for all accounts
7. Check your credit reports at least 3 times a year: You can receive one credit report from each of the three Credit Reporting Agencies per year at www.annualcreditreport.com. If you obtain a report once every three or four months, you can monitor your credit at a basic level for free.  (great idea to phase this!)
8. Stay safe with a Virtual Private Network (VPN) when using public WiFi: The best way to protect yourself from these attacks is to use a Virtual Private Network or VPN like PrivateWiFi.com.
9. Make sure your antivirus is complete and up-to-date
10. Opt-out of prescreened credit card offers: www.optoutprescreen.com.

(source & more details: https://www.privatewifi.com/10-identity-theft-protection-tips-from-the-itrc/)

I also purchased Identity Theft insurance from State Farm ($25/year as an optional rider if you already use State Farm) because if (or should I say "when") it happens it is nice to know someone will help sort it all out. I heard it is quite time consuming, stressful, and costly.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. This post has been scraped in violation of that license if you are reading this post on other than http://www.digital-qa.blogspot.com/.

Be Safe: Install a VPN before using Public WiFi

If you log into public Wi-Fi, hackers can gain access to your computer or phone (and it doesn't matter if you pay an access fee or input a password, it's still public). So before you plug in your bank account passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information, invest in a VPN (virtual private network). Identity theft can happen quickly.

A VPN is a subscription software that encrypts web traffic to/from your device.

VPN companies I'm currently researching*:

• PrivateWiFi.com ($85/year)
• Private Internet Access ($7/month, $40/year)
• proXPN ($10/mo)
• WiTopia ($50/yr to $70/yr)

*will report back on which one I selected and why.

Sources:
- Why You Should Start Using a VPN (via Lifehacker.com)
- How VPNs Work (via howstuffworks.com)

Check out more tips for Identity Theft prevention (and available insurance to help if you do become a victim):
10 Great Tips for Identity Theft Prevention (via @digital-qa.blogspot.com)

6/1 Update... I like these tips too:
9 Tips to Stay Safe on Public WiFi (via blog.laptopmag.com)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. This post has been scraped in violation of that license if you are reading this post on other than http://www.digital-qa.blogspot.com/.