There are many things we worry about one of them being can people hack into your bank account or credit card. Well they can, usually if you are not careful enough but I guess there are many ways people can obtain your details.

There is one that alarms me and that is the lack of people protecting their PIN numbers either when making a purchase or at a cash machine. The amount of people that put this secret code in at arms length and I often stand there easily making it out. Sometimes I tell them, I hope it makes them change the way they do it. Whether you are making a purchase or at a cash machine cover your the keypad with your other hand so that it can’t be seen, even if no one is around. Your PIN number is required for fraud with your card or cloned card. Usually it is recorded with a hidden camera so cover the keypad.

Also if making a purchase make sure they don’t take the card away, stay with the card either go with them or let them bring the keypad to you.

The other thing to look out for is phishing, this is usually an email with a link to a website that requires a login like a bank account. The link takes you to a fake website that looks like your bank account you enter your login details and bang, now they have your details. Don’t follow the links enter the address for your bank or whatever it is you want to login to never follow the links. This includes eBay and PayPal, there are many others. Also any email that sounds too good to be true, delete it. So many people I know said they knew it sounded too good to be true but they would see anyway, don’t, just don’t.

Only shop on secure sites when you are at the point where you have to input payment details you should see the website address start with https and not http. You should also see a padlock in either the status, title or address bar, depends on the browser.

Although commonsense is key here it is still important to have security software like antivirus, antispyware etc and keep these up to date. It is very important to do updates. It is these updates that tell the software what harmful things to look out for.

These are all simple things to do and can save you a lot of trouble later.

Happy and safe computing

Gary