Talk about a payoff! Hackers recently stole account information for 1.5 million credit and debit card customers. Find out how to protect your accounts from hackers and “share” this post with your friends so they don’t end up accidentally enriching the cybercrooks.

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Protecting Yourself From Online Hackers


Click for full photo gallery: Recent Cyber Attacks

Global Payments is the latest company to fall victim to a large-scale hacking incident. On Monday, the company said hackers stole account information for nearly 1.5 million debit and credit cards customers.

Unfortunately, this has become a fairly common news story. Last year, hackers stole personal information from a reported 24 million accounts from Sony Online Entertainment. In 2010, 130 million accounts were stolen from a payment processing company, Heartland Payment Systems. In 2007, 46 million accounts were stolen from TJ Maxx and Marshall’s. Even MasterCard had 40 million accounts compromised in 2005. (UPDATE: this was actually was a third-party breach that also included Visa.)

According to a recent study by Javelin Strategy & Research, consumers who receive a data breach notification are six times more likely to be the victim of identity theft or fraud.

What can you do if you receive a data breach notification?

The most important precaution is to check the statements for your debit and credit cards regularly for any unauthorized charges. Don’t just look for large purchases. Hackers sometimes make small transactions since they are more likely to fly under the radar. Be persistent with watching your accounts–it may be months or even a year before thieves actually use your card.

While the large-scale hacking incidents get the publicity, there are several precautions consumers can take to protect their accounts from getting compromised by individual hackers:

1. Change your passwords from time to time. Don’t publicly post anything you may use as a password: your birthdate, pet’s name, mother’s maiden name, or your school. Identity thieves can use the information you post to guess your password.

2. Do not email your credit card number to anyone. No financial institution or legitimate company will contact you by phone or email to ask for your social security number, credit card number or other personal information. Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from email you receive, regardless of what company sent them.

3. Check your credit reports. You can get one free credit report every year from each of the three credit bureaus. Go to AnnualCreditReport.com or call (877) 322-8228 to order. Stagger these reviews throughout the year in order to catch anything that isn’t correct in your account.

4. If you use a wireless router, password protect it and enable the encryption to scramble the data you send online.

5. Use your credit card instead of debit card. Credit cards offer stronger fraud and identity theft protections.

6. If you feel your information has been compromised, place a fraud alert at the three major credit bureaus. Call Experian at 888-397-3742; Equifax at 800-525-6285; and TransUnion at 800-680-7289. You can put a security freeze on your files.

7. Ask your bank if it has free software to protect your bank account. For example, Bank of America offers Trusteer Rapport for its online banking customers.

8. If your information has been stolen, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. The data is used to create a picture of wrongdoing. Unfortunately, the FTC won’t get your money back.

Provided by LowCards.com



Orginal article: On Forbes by Bill Hardekopf, Personal Finance 04/09/2012 @ 12:49PM