Online Banking
Do you use online banking? If so, are you familiar with your banks privacy policy? This might be something you want to learn more about. Your bank might want to share your information with third parties to advertise other services to you. It may also track what websites you visit on the internet to better market advertisements to suit your interests. It is required by law that your bank provide you with its privacy policy a well as clear guidelines on how to opt out. It is also possible that you can block tracking through your internet browser.
It is important to make sure that your bank’s website is encrypted. If the site is encrypted, it will scramble personal information to protect against unauthorized access. A small lock should appear at the bottom right corner of the browser.
Is Online Banking Safe?
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Passwords
Never use personal information that is easy to guess as a password, such as birthdays. The longer a password is, and the more complicated it is, the stronger the security will be. It is good to include both capital and lowercase letters and numbers.
Examples of very secure passwords:
Butterfly583
Sh0pp1ng
L0VE2sw1m
You should also try to switch your passwords from time to time. In the bank where I worked, we switched passwords every month. The change could be as small as just changing the number in the password. For instance, if in January my password is PassWord01, I might change it to PassWord02 in February.
E-mail – Avoid Phishing Scams!
Your bank will never send you an e-mail asking you to verify your account information. Sometimes scammers will send an e-mail acting as a bank or credit card to steal your identity. Below is an example of such a scam:
Never give out personal information unless you are in a secure site
with a company you trust.
Take this quiz to learn more and to test your knowledge:
How Can You Protect Your Children?
As far as your children are concerned, keeping the lines of communication between you and them is important. Talk to your children about what they are doing on the internet.
Below I have provided a short tutorial on how to control the privacy settings for your internet browser:
For Internet Explorer users:
Click on “Tools” then “Internet Options.”
Click on the tab labeled “Security” and control your settings from there.
For Firefox users:
Click on “Tools."
Click on “Options.”
Your settings can then be altered under “Privacy” and “Security.”
It is best just to read through all of your options and decide what kind of settings you will need.
For more specific guidelines on how much protection your child needs (by age) see:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/family/age/stages.mspx
Fun sites and search engines that are safe for your kids:
http://www.wisekids.org.uk/Kids_safe_search_engines.htm
For more information from the FDIC on safe internet banking:
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/
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