Identity Protection
According to the Federal Trade Commission on Consumer Information, Identity theft is when someone uses your personal or financial information without your permission. While unauthorized credit card charges might be a common result of this theft, there’s a lot more to consider, should your information ever be stolen.
With Your Identity Stolen, Criminals Can…
- Buy things with your credit cards
- Get new credit cards in your name
- Open a phone, electricity, or gas account in your name
- Steal your tax refund
- Use your health insurance to get medical care
- Pretend to be you if they are arrested
What Can You Do to Protect Your Identity?
1. Keep your financial records like Social Security and Medicare cards, and any other documents that have personal information in a safe place.
2. Shred paper documents before you dispose of them. Don’t give out your Social Security number easily. Ask questions first. Does your dentist or child’s school really need it?
3. Use multi-factor authentication for as many accounts that offer it (e.g., Gmail, banking, etc.). W&L has chosen to use Duo MFA to protect your university account.
4. Check your bank accounts and credit report frequently so you can spot suspicious activity. You can also use a monitoring service to keep an eye on your accounts and alert you when any changes are made. You can purchase identity theft protection through W&L for yourself or family. Find out more here.
5. Consider using a passphrase instead of passwords for your accounts. A passphrase is longer and generally considered more secure. You can string random words together to create your passphrase. Check out useapassphrase.com for ideas. Don’t use the same passphrase for multiple accounts or websites.
Online Privacy
Your data privacy protections can vary from state to state and from among the applications you choose to use on a daily basis. Websites can store information about your visit in the form of a “cookie” placed on your internet browser. This information can be used to create a behavior profile about your activities that can be shared with advertising companies. Unencrypted emails you send and receive have the potential to be exploited for data mining purposes. Search engine companies know what you’re looking for and social media sites know how you’re feeling.
Once your data is collected, it’s often impossible to know what it’s being used for, how securely it’s stored, who it’ll be shared with or how long it will be retained [Mozilla Blog / Jan 2021].
What Can You Do to Protect Your Privacy Online?
1. Start with a few simple tasks and work your way up from there. For example, if you want to minimize tracking from the websites you visit, set your browser to automatically delete cookies and cache upon exit.
2. Complete a Google privacy checkup. Although it seems counterintuitive given Google’s position as a massive data aggregator, the company does offer tools to assist in clearing your profile and adjusting your privacy settings.
3. Change your phone settings to block unnecessary location tracking. Remove apps from your phone that you rarely or never use.
4. Do an assessment of your social media footprint. Do you have private details about you or your family readily accessible to the online world? Consider tightening down or restricting the amount of information you allow others to view.
5. Be careful what you click and/or download from emails. Understand that as a W&L student or employee, your publicly available information may be used in an attempt to trick you through phishing or spear phishing campaigns. When in doubt, take the extra step to verify messages you receive. Remember you can always contact the ITS Helpdesk for assistance.
