Friendly Security Check Reminder: Are you as secure as you could be? Tutorial

Friendly Security Check Reminder: Are you as secure as you could be?

The alternative title for this topic could be "How a Simple Security Check Can Help Protect Yourself from ID Fraud & Cyber Crime". Because that's basically what it can do when you complete all the security improving steps and tips in this article.

Tip: If you haven't seen it already, make sure to check out the first post I done last year on How to Secure Your SEOClerks Account With Better Security. That runs through 6 ways you can improve your SEOClerks account security!

Cyber Lives - Is yours as as secure as it could be?

We all know that we don't live in a perfect world and that crime and fraud does take place. Both offline in #therealworld and online by cyber crims and opportunists. And it's easy to get complacent about that if you've never been a victim of a crime against you. It's easy to think it will never happen to you but that's usually what every victim used to think before it did! And you might not be the CEO of a large business and or someone that has access to large amounts of money or have access to some highly sensitive info like customer details, bank details, addresses, passwords etc for which you're responsible for. Or even just someone that uses the Internet in any small way to browse the web, use social media, buy things online, create accounts on sites, check your bank balance etc. Nobody is truly immune and can become a victim somehow and some way if they get complacent and don't take measures to cover their tracks in the snow and lock everything down about them as much as possible.

Because cyber crime can and does happen. ID fraud has been a problem for many people now and while more people are aware of it and taught about it by their bank and financial services etc, more are aware and more is done to make it harder for ID thieves to "clone" peoples identity. But the crooks are also evolving too and coming up with ever more elaborate methods of committing ID fraud while remaining cloaked and completely anonymous so much so that it makes it next to impossible for the banks and their fraud detection departments to ever pin the crime on someone. And that amounts to a massive amount in losses for the banks and financial institutions too. And that has a knock on affect for the average man on the street as it means prices go up, so do taxes and of course, not to mention banking charges.

So it would be helpful to prevent this from happening all round. Not just so you can do all you can do to try and prevent it from happening to you. But so that innocent law abiding, tax paying people don't pay for the greedy crimes of these cyber ID theft and fraud criminals. And so, it's important to stress this from time to time and have these little security check reminders too. Just some things you can check and do. Both on here of course and in general too!

And of course, if you're a freelancer. Then you could be a potential target. Especially if you could have you identity reasonably easily cloned or have your email account hacked or something. That could give them access to all the sites you use by just restating your passwords. And really, your email account is one of the main things that become compromised for most vic's. That could include your bank, PayPal or other payment handling site where you have funds stored which can be withdrawn by the crook to some other account they made using someone else's details or something.

Obviously they're not going to withdraw the money to their own account. A few people have done that though. How stupid is that? So stupid it's bloody hilarious and laughable. I mean, who does that? Who goes to all the lengths to clone someone and or hack them and steal their money but then transfers it to their own account? Not even a 5 year old would do that. Sadly, it's not something you'll hear about on the worlds dumbest criminals TV show. And that's actually part of the problem which is why I mention it. Because it's an online crime, you don't hear about it as much, but more needs to be done to make people aware of it and the authorities that it's just the same as any other crime. It's still theft. And as said, it's well known about these days and they're slowly starting to educate people about it so people can minimise the chances of getting cyber mugged!

So what so what? So, the point is, getting defrauded and having your money stolen can be devastating let alone the thought that someone hacked you. It can really mess with your head actually. And for some people, utterly and totally ruin and destroy their life. For many more, make life a nightmare in dealing with it and trying to explain to your bank that the 75k that was just transferred to some offshore account was not made by you and proving that can be hard sometimes.

Can you imagine if that was you in that situation? Imagine never being able to get that money back. It would be harder still if by the time it's been reported the money hasn't already been withdrawn in cash at the account it went too. Or, wasn't used to buy bitcoin with which was then sent into the ether which makes it next to impossible only with God to trace it by the time it's been sold again a hundred times over before it's finally sold for the last time and exchanged for cash to their PayPal account or something.

I don't even know how I know this! I'm not a security expert. I'm just cotching on my bed watching CSI: Miami and writing this on my fone lol. But I do know it because I do keep up with security news and have been interested in ID fraud and how to protect myself for a while though. Since I first learned about it about 20 years ago. Back then the way it would happen is that people would steal your rubbish bags you put out and rifle through them for letters and stuff like that, receipts, invoices, bills, bank statements etc. Anything they could use to build up a profile of you which they can then use for nefarious reasons like opening bank accounts in your name, taking out credit cards in your name, getting loans and buying expensive things all in your name. Even being able to create fake passports and driving licenses and things like that. These days they look for ways to build up a profile on you from your online doings. Your usernames and emails you leave on forums and blogs. Your social media profiles updates and bio details etc etc.

And everyone should know this these days! Anyone throwing sensitive paper work out in the trash is an idiot. That should all be destroyed first. Burned or shredded using a two way cutting shedder (those one way shredders make it easier to piece them back together again). That you shouldn't put that in the trash as you never know what might happen to it and who might look through it.

It's never happened to me, afaik, I mean, whether or not someone has ever stolen my trash bags for that reason. It's not as bad here but you never know. Neither have I been the victim of ID fraud like cloning or being hacked etc touch wood. But I do remember when I watched about it on Panorama I think it was about how that is how these few people were victims of it. And it was poignant and dawned on me as in the past I've thrown out loads of paper work that could be construed as sensitive like bills, statements and receipts and crap like that. Hey a lot of people do as they're used to doing that since ID fraud and cyber crime was never really as big an issue in the early 80s up to about y2k. So that's just what people did with paper work they didn't want. Although, most people recycle their paperwork these days but most still throw out sensitive stuff with it and leave it sat outside their house completely oblivious to the danger they're in for it.

Is that person you?

Do you throw out sensitive details like letters, bills, paper statement etc in the trash or with recycling? Are you a potential target and don't even know it? What about how you operate online? Do you advertise on social media that you're going on holiday to the whole world? Do you take precautions and checks when shopping online and entering sensitive details like names, addresses, payment information etc etc? What about using other Wifi networks at public locations like libraries, restaurants and bars? What about passwords? Do you use the same password over and over again for every site? What about usernames and ID's? Also, do you use a pseudo name or your real one everywhere? As for myself, I prefer to go pseudo as you never know!

We all know that how Google has done a lot lately to protect people's security by telling them about whether a site uses SSL or not. And that can protect you in some ways. But you can still leave a trail when you browse or do anything online. And just because a site is using SSL doesn't mean that the site itself is legit and safe to use.

How to increase your SEOClerks Account Security

Over the past couple of years, SEOClerks / Ionicware have added several new security features that once you complete, you can improve the security of your account. Helping you to lock it down like Fort Knox! If you haven't do so, do these now!

These methods and steps include;

1. Verifying your real physical Address .
2. Securing your account with Two Factor authentication.
3. Checking recent Devices.
4. Verifying your actual identity.
5. Adding a secondary password to your account.

If you haven't done any or all of those yet, do so now. Not only will it increase the security of your account, but by confirming your physical address, you can receive SEOClerks post cards they send out with a $5 cash coupon code to redeem.

And that basically covers the friendly security check reminder! If I've missed anything out here please say so below in the comments.

And what other ways are there you can improve your security online and that of SEOClerks?

Thanks all and Godspeed!

Mike.