Protecting your Personal Information

How to keep criminals out of your computer. Recently, a laptop with thousands of Veterans’ social security numbers and other personal data was stolen from an employee’s house. When personal data is stolen there is not much users can do about it, except to keep an eye in their accounts to make sure no unapproved use of bank accounts or social security numbers is happening. But when you use your own computer, you can protect yourself from giving away your personal information unintentionally.

Roger Alexander, associate professor at Washington State University School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, shared some tips to help you protect your personal information while using a computer at home or work.

“When you buy things online, the information you enter is saved temporarily in your machine,” Alexander said. “Software installed in your computer without your knowledge can capture that information and later sell it for illegal use.”

To avoid problems, Alexander recommended several safety tips:

– Send your personal information encrypted. There are services available to help you install necessary software to encrypt messages.

– Do not store data such as bank accounts or social security numbers in your computer (or if you do, make sure they are encrypted).

– When buying online, do not share credit card numbers or other information with people out of the U.S. or with business you do not know anything about.

– Never use a primary account or card. Have a secondary bank account with enough money to cover your online transactions. If your account number was stolen, this will limit the damage done to your savings.

– Use PayPal accounts for security when paying for transactions online. Most business will accept PayPal and it is a free service for the buyer. Remember, however, that your PayPal password has to be safe too, because like a bank account, it can be misused.

– Do not share your personal information with anybody you do not know either over the phone or internet.

– Be aware that information sent in the body of an e-mail message is not secure (unless encrypted). Do not write social security numbers or other information in an e-mail. Apply the same measures for instant messaging.

– Do not open attachments or links from e-mail from organizations saying that your account has been compromised, even when the organization’s name is your own bank or the I.R.S. Instead, contact directly the organization and let them know about the message. In many instances they will ask you to forward them the message to help them track down illegal use of their name.

Alexander can be reached at (509) 335-0922 or rta@eecs.wsu.edu.