2.
Never give information over the phone to anyone who is not selling a solid obvious
product (not a service) that YOU went looking for one way or other.
3.
Never respond to email by hitting a link in the email which follows a story line.
The story line will be about your PayPal, banking, eBay, or other account being
used improperly, and the page may look like the real thing. Go to your account
at the web site of the entity, using your usual entry pass word. See if there
is a problem there by checking your account situation.
4.
Get Spy Sweeper, Ad-aware, and Norton on your computer, and update them daily
and before all financial online transactions. Other software is good. Ask around.
5. Restrict
your banking information data access to only what is absolutely needed to do business.
Ask your banker how you can keep a minimum of vulnerability.
6.
Keep large amounts of money in well known investment programs, NOT in your account
that is accessed automatically to pay bills and do business. Have separate accounts
for business and personal expenses.
7.
If you don't need the line of credit you once had, ask the credit card company
to reduce it to only what you now need.
8.
Never have a debit card account. Have a credit card account. The bank is far more
eager to protect the accounts in which they share vulnerability and will lose
badly if they are hacked. If you believe your credit card information is in unsafe
hands due to some strange happening, call the credit card company, and ask them
to issue a new card which keeps all your good credit history in tact.
9.
Have your wealth spread over several venues and in several layers, all of which
are totally isolated from each other. If you are older, and your mind is not keeping
up with progress, have one of your smart and trusted kids do this for you. US
Notes and Bills are a safe investment because you must make a physical appearance
to negotiate them. If you are not sure you are mentally in control of modern transactions,
ask all investment agencies to block all electronic transactions in your accounts.
Write paper deposits and withdrawals.
10.
Give cash gifts or bank checks at church and to charitable organizations. If you
get into their data lists, you are in perhaps the most sloppy place on earth when
it comes to diligence to protect the giver. Indeed, these mega ministries that
collect hundreds of millions in gifts are well known for letting personal data
get loose. Some of them sell it and hand it around to fellow shy locks.
11.
Do not keep pass words on your hard drive or in personal organizers on your computer.
Do not keep them laying around the house. If you don't have a firewall or hard
wall against hackers, do not let your computer keep data you enter to be used
later. Keep the pass words and codes on paper and concealed. Make sure a trusted
family member or friend knows where they are. Do not use pass words which relate
to you or your history. Use contrived words which relate to totally foreign ideas.
Use a different pass word for every individual account and activity for which
a pass word is needed.
12.
Do not share your strategies and choices with anyone except you trusted partners
in the family or in business. Do not tell people things they do not need to know
about you and your encryption precautions. Never give the last step in such matters
to your computer technician. Make them walk away, and YOU type in the last step.
Never give the back door data to anyone unless you are in absolutely dire straights.
If you must do so, after the event is passed and life is back to normal, change
ALL your pass words, and find a way to block the back door.