Tips to Safeguard Sensitive Data
As Americans venture online in greater numbers to accommodate work, school and shopping realities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we think it’s important to provide practical steps and information for our communities and customers to use and help safeguard sensitive data.
An estimated 67 percent of data breaches resulted from credential theft, human error or social attacks. Here are a few helpful tips to reduce your likelihood of becoming a victim of identity theft and fraud:
- Use unique passphrases as passwords and differentiate across multiple platforms. Length trumps complexity. A strong passphrase is a sentence that is at least 12 characters long.
- Do a system check. Purge unused apps and outdated or sensitive information stored in old files and emails and ensure all software on internet-connected devices is current.
- Manage social media settings and minimize information sharing. Just a few data points can create a pathway for exploitation by cybercriminals.
- Use public WiFi carefully: Limit the type of business conducted over open public WiFi connections, including logging in to key accounts like banking.
You can also be pro-active and make sure your identity has not been compromised by taking the following steps:
- Monitor your bank account activity regularly for transaction irregularities and report discrepancies to Community State Bank immediately.
- Back up intellectual property and other digital information and store it safely so in the unfortunate event of a ransomware or other cyber threats you have a way to retrieve the data.
- Read the fine print when purchasing items online. If prompted, don’t save credit and debit card information on the merchant’s website or app.
- Stay vigilant. Be mindful when shopping online and look for signs of illegitimate websites. Spelling or grammatical errors, missing contact information, and suspicious URLs or email addresses are all red flags.
- Look for special indicators such as web addresses with https:// that denote extra measures taken to help secure your information. At Community State Bank we chose “CSB.bank” because .bank is a trusted, verified, more secure domain for financial institutions. It’s created and managed by banking and security experts and provides a solid foundation for us to securely and effectively communicate with our customers. It also ensures secure access to online banking services, which is crucial.
Our Universal Banking team is here to help. In the event that you have questions or are concerned about the security of your personal information, please contact our Universal Banking team via chat, online or by phone.