Don't Get Hacked: 9 Ways To Improve Your Online Security

Your whole life is online, and that leaves you vulnerable. You need to lock your stuff up! Don’t get hacked; 9 ways to improve your online security and protect your money.

When we think of online security, we usually think about things like our bank accounts and other financial data. But there are so many other ways a hacker could destroy your life. And it’s easier than ever for them to do it, so it’s important to keep your information safe.

Money Tips

Of all the things that hackers could go after, our money is the scariest, so we need to be especially vigilant with our financial data.

Online Purchases

Use credit cards or PayPal when you’re shopping online, never a debit card. A credit card is the bank’s money, and if a hacker gets the number, you can just notify the credit card company, and they take it from there. You haven’t lost anything.

But a hacked debit card is your money. You do have some protections. The FTC and Federal Reserve have rules to limit your loss to $50 provided you notify the bank within two business days after learning of fraud.

But you could lose as much as $500 if you do not tell the card issuer within that time frame.

These protections have their limits though. If you don’t report an unauthorized transfer that appears on your statement within 60 days after the statement goes out, you risk unlimited loss on transfers made after the 60-day period. That means you could lose all the money in your account plus your maximum overdraft line of credit.

Even if you quickly notify the bank and they correct the situation, it can take a few days. A few days during which you will have no access to your bank account so you can’t pay bills from it or withdraw cash.

While we should check our bank statements regularly, many of us don’t so by the time you notice a problem, it could be too late.

I don’t check mine often, but luckily, I use Trim. This month, Trim sent me a Facebook message that my rent had been debited from my account twice. I was able to immediately remedy this, but if it weren’t for that notification, it could have been several days before I noticed.

Turn On Purchase Notifications

You can set up alerts on most credit and debit cards to send you notifications immediately after a purchase. You can set a threshold, any purchase over $X but you should really set it up for all purchases. It can get annoying but not as annoying as trying to clean up after a hack. And really, how many times a day are you using your cards?

Monitor Your Credit

You can get a free credit report from each of the three major reporting agencies every 12 months at through this link; it’s free. But you should really check your credit report about once a month.

Credit Karma lets you do it whenever you want, for free. Many people think Credit Karma is just a place to get your credit score, but you can see your report there too. You want to look for any new accounts in your name that you did not open.

Credit Karma even sends you an alert when this happens. When my landlord changed online rent payment companies, and I made an account with the new one, I got such an alert from Credit Karma.

Traveling

Foreign tourists can be an especially ripe target for pickpockets. Pickpockets aren’t sophisticated computer hackers, but if one of them gets your wallet, they could get access to a lot of sensitive information.

If you’re afraid of your own shadow, you can carry a decoy wallet and toss that at any l...