Protect Your Account Online

Answer 1

As more people discover the ease and convenience of internet banking, many are turning to having online banking accounts to manage their personal finances. Online banking accounts let you see all of your transactions, pay bills, and transfer money between various accounts. Because of the sensitivity of the data, you need to do everything you can to protect the security of your account online and your hard earned money.

One of the first things that you should do to protect your account when accessing it online is to create a difficult password. Many people have their passwords stolen because they have made them too easy. For example, the most common password in the world is 123456, which will be the first guess of any potential thief. Banks have made password requirements more stringent in recent years however, so you should take advantage of this. Most banks require a combination of letter and numbers of at least eight characters in length to serve as a valid password. Others go farther and make the passwords case sensitive. You should make your account password easy to remember, but difficult to figure out. Don't put any parts of your name or address into the password or any other information that may be easy to guess. Also, banks are adding extra layers of protection in order to access an account online. For example, many banks will ask you to answer a series of questions when you set up your account online initially. These may ask things like your mother's middle name, the name of your pet, or the school that you attended. These answers are then stored and may be asked as questions for you to answer when you try to log into your account online. You should never write down your password or give it to anyone.

Criminals will often try to trick you into giving them your account information and password. One common tactic is called phishing. Criminals will send you an email that looks like it is from your bank. The email will typically ask you to confirm your personal information and password by going to a website or by responding in the email. These letters are scams and should be deleted immediately. No real bank will ever ask you for your account information or your password.

Finally, be aware of where you access your account. Never use a public computer like at a library or internet cafe to access your online account. These terminals are not secure enough and are used by dozens of people each day, which can put you at risk. If there is an emergency and you absolutely have to use a public computer to access your account online, make sure that the connection is secure and that you log out of your account and delete your browsing history so that people using the computer after you will not be able to log into your account or see that you were accessing it from that computer.