by NBS
on January 3, 2017
The holiday season has officially set in which means, before we know it, New Year’s resolutions will soon be a hot topic of conversation. The ultra-motivated will have a ten-part list covering everything from weight loss goals to finding a new hobby. And then there will of course be some outliers (16% of us according to a Neilson survey) that will admit that resolutions just aren’t for them. Wherever your ambitions lie on the spectrum, the one area of your life that can’t afford to be brushed off is your identity wellness.
Though often overlooked, your identity wellness deserves the kind of attention that people tend to put towards their health at the start of each new year. Your identity wellness encompasses everything from your financial security, credit profile, and credit score to digital privacy.
The New Year is the perfect time to make proactive identity protection a part of your everyday life. With these tips, you’ll be on your way to a smarter, safer, and more identity-secure you:
- Check your bank and credit accounts frequently. It’s best to catch fraud as early as possible so that you can take action immediately; this minimizes damage and makes the resolution process easier.
- Check your credit report regularly. Federal law requires the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to provide you with a free credit report once a year. You can stagger these free reports every four months from each bureau so that you’re seeing your report pretty often. This is why credit monitoring services are so valuable: alerts are sent at the first sign of suspicious activity on your credit profile.
- Stop connecting to public Wi-Fi. It’s convenient, of course, but frequently it’s unsecure. This means that any information you input while connected could be accessible by someone else. So if you must, just be sure to never access your financial accounts or any other sites that require a password when using public Wi-Fi.
- Don’t click the “Remember Me” box on your digital accounts. If your computer, laptop, or smartphone ever got into the wrong hands, the perpetrator could have a field day accessing your accounts and gathering important personal information. Even worse, they could log into your bank or credit accounts.
- Keep your firewall and anti-malware up to date. Firewalls block unauthorized access to your computer’s information, while anti-malware prevents malicious software from being downloaded to it. You must be sure to keep them up to date though, as hackers are constantly creating new ways to infiltrate your computer.
- Update your passwords or look into a password manager. We all know by now that we should change our passwords often with strong, secure ones. Let’s face it though: most of us don’t. An easier solution might be to keep all of them together in a password manager so that you can use complex ones – without forgetting!
- Shred your documents before tossing them. This includes your credit card/bank statements, pre-approved credit card offers, utility bills, and anything else that contains your personal information.
Of course nothing beats having a comprehensive identity protection provider that is there 24/7 for when the unexpected happens. Services like credit and identity monitoring send alerts if any suspicious activity is found so that you can take action immediately. The NBS Identity Protection suite makes using the web worry-free with anti-phishing and anti-keylogging software. And if you ever did become a victim of identity theft, our Certified Resolution Specialists are available 24/7 to provide empathetic, compassionate assistance.