Online Security and Identity Theft 101

Basics of security and protecting yourself onlineknow that the company or website has taken steps to
Internet security, identity theft and fraud have becomeprotect users and customers from credit card fraud
major issues recently as more people globally obtainand identity theft. Although there are no guarantees,
access to the Internet. With the decrease in barriers tothere is no comparison between a site with such a
entry, i.e. lower webhosting costs, widespreadsecurity seal and one without this safeguard. The
highspeed and wireless Internet access, and websiteHacker Safe seal indicates the site is scanned daily to
contruction software that truly enables anyone toensure the site meets strict security standards of
create a website, the online players and number ofsecure website design and server applications.
new websites are increasing exponentially. With thisDemand site encryption for personal information.
increase comes a flood of new websites fromTo protect personal information trasmission, such as
countries around the world with various languages andcredit card payments or home telephone and address
business and regulatory environments. The questiondata, a well designed and safe Internet website should
for the Internet user becomes, which of thesehave SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption of at
websites can be trusted when making onlineleast 128 bit. What does this mean? This indicates the
purchases and revealing personal information to anwebsite uses technology which ecrypts your personal
unknown party?data when being trasmitted from the website to its
Online fraud in auctions, advance fee fraud andservers, and is therefore extremely difficult to intercept
romance scams, lottery and phishing emails, credit cardor steal. A major company offering this service is
and identity theft totalled well over $2B USD in 2006.VeriSign and having the seal indicates that the site, or
The number is expected to increase in 2007 despiteportions of the site are encrypted. There are many
efforts to curb the trend. Criminals carry out thecompetitors, however, and as long as the yellow lock
operations from countries all over the world, but manyshows on the bottom right hand side of the browser,
work from Internet cafes in corrupt countries likevisitors to a website know that such a site page is
Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana. The truth is, however,being encrypted.
nearly all countries in the world have criminals involvedA website example of how it all looks and works.
in this new crime. It is estimated that over 60% of allWymoo International makes a good case presentation
Internet users express privacy and trust concernsof how all these elements come together to protect
when shopping or providing personal information overwebsite visitors and customers. These same principles
the web, or over 1 billion people worldwide. How canthat a website is properly designed and maintained,
you protect yourself from this growing crime? Wehowever, can and should be applied to other websites
provide some safety tips.when the choice is being made to do business via a
Search the Web for reviews, posts and information.website, or even to supply basic personal information.
By searching Google and Yahoo for the company orFrom viewing Wymoo's home page, we see on the
website name, chances are excellent you can findbottom left hand corner the Hacker Safe and Truste
reviews or at least comments from other users andseals. By clicking on either seal, visitors and potential
customers. If not, try searching the Rip Off Report tocustomers can verify that the site is in current
see if the company has had a history of complaints. Sillcompliance with each online security group. On
no information? Try using Yahoo Answers to ask ifWymoo's Free Quote page, visitors again see the
anyone has any information on the site. If after theseHacker Safe and Truste seals, but on the bottom right
attempts little or no information is known about the site,of the browser, there is the yellow lock indicating the
chances are the website is new or a very smallpage is encrypted. Also on the page are links to the
operation. In other words, the risk is higher as theprivacy and data security policy. This is a good
company or website has yet to establish its brand andexample of what to look for in quality e-commerce
online reputation. Next, a look at the actual site.websites.
Look for privacy policies and privacy associations.Lastly, there is no way to ensure 100% safety while
The first step when judging an unknown websiteshopping or providing personal information on the
should be viewing its privacy policy. If the site has noInternet. There are many steps you can take to judge
privacy policy, consider it a questionable operation andwhether or not the website is legitimate and offers
move on. Reading the entire privacy policy and legalprotection from identity theft and credit card fraud.
verbage isn't necessay, but do scan the document toResearch the company or website reputation on
see if the site or company appears to take privacyYahoo and Google. Look for security and privacy
matters seriously. Truste is a non-profit group whichseals such as HackerSafe and Truste. Check for
offers its website seal to those sites which complywebsite encryption (the yellow lock) on pages where
with their strict standards. If the website in question hasyou submit your private information. Lastly, make
this seal, chances are the website and or companypayments with a major credit card. In the event of
takes the matter seriously with adequate steps tofraud, your credit card company may reverse the
inform site visitors and protect your private information.charge.
Check for security seals on the site like Hacker Safe.Play it safe,
If a website has a major security seal such asA. Hathaway
ScanAlert's Hacker Safe seal, visitors to that siteCopyright © 2005-2007 A.