June 25, 2009

Remove DANGER from personal and financial data

Personal data[1]

- All information about a loving, identifiable individual.
It includes the individual's name, address, age, gender, telephone number, identity number, financial status, occupation, personal identification numbers (PINs) and others.


Financial data

- Examples are bank account information, credit card information and others.


How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

1.
HAVE A STRONG ACCESS CONROL

  • In order to ensure a stronger security, users are advised to have a wiser password.
  • A combination of letters, numbers and symbols will increase the difficulty for the thief to figure out your password.
  • Active tokens and passive tokens also do a big favour in this matter.
  • Besides, the biometric system offers a more accurate authentication by recognising a person through physical trait, for example fingerprint, iris, facial and voice recognition.


2.
USING PUBLIC KEY INFRASTRUCTURE (PKI)

  • It is a cornerstone for secure e-payment.
  • Users should encrypt their private data to protect data in transit.
  • Public key encryption, Digital Signature and Certificate Authorities are examples of encryption.


3.
IMPROVE YOUR COMPUTER SECURITY

  • To reduce the risk of exposing to those internet threats and attacks, users are recommended to use some useful tools, such as the anti-virus software, spyware or setting up a strong firewall.
  • This can protect users' personal and financial data from the nefariousness.


4.
LOWER YOUR CREDIT CARD LIMIT

  • When purchasing online or using mail orders, it may be easy for other intended person to steal and use you credit card information.
  • By using a low limit credit card, you can be saved from paying huge amount of payment for others without knowing it.


5
. BE ALERT

  • Users are advised to check their monthly bills in order to discover any unusual transactions done using their credit cards.
  • Scanning computer regularly can detect the viruses or worms which have intruded into the computer.
  • Users should be careful when receiving anonymous's mails and do not simply open them.
  • Before giving out any sensitive data, users should verify the validity of any request for personal data independently.


Reference:

1. Safeguard Your Financial Life

2 comments:

  1. Strong access control is of course extremely vital to protect one's personal and financial data.
    Fingerprints are proved to be not enough reliable.
    In the future, we might be introduced to DNA recognition system. Who knows?
    Anyway, users' awareness to anti-malwares is an important issue.
    Malwares such as spywares, keyloggers, worms, trojan horses are extremely dangerous.
    These are the threats that should be taken care of.
    Knowledge of cryptology becomes important in this case.
    Websites involving online payment should be firmly encrypted.
    Users should always ensure their own computers and terminals free from malwares.
    And consumers are to be advised not to make purchase on unprotected or suspicious websites.
    In a word, we as consumers should think wisely before taking action and stay alert all the time.
    Be a wise 21th century consumer, be invulnerable to these cyber threats and thefts.

    -eugene-

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  2. Yea...you are right!Before learning on the E-commerce subject, I really know nothing on the online threat..But now I know better~
    threats are everywhere online, so we all better be careful especially when dealing with the online transactions asking for our financial data..
    Anyway, thanks for the comment~~^^

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