These days, proactively examining your cybersecurity to protect yourself from hackers, scammers, and identity theft is a crucial, but often underrated, part of reaching your retirement goals. That’s especially true right now. Cybercrimes are a threat year-round, but some forms go up during the holiday season. That makes this a good time to ensure you’ve taken a few basic steps to protect your identity and your bank account, including:
• Don’t open emails from senders you don’t recognize, and never open attachments. These can be disguised as special offers for things such as weight loss products, miracle cures for ailments, or merchandise at “unbelievably low prices.” (Scammers are always coming up with new subjects to hook us, aren’t they?)
• Remember that neither your bank nor the government will ever ask you to provide sensitive or personal information via email. Messages that look like they are from these institutions are likely “phishing” scams.
• Regularly review your credit card and bank account statements. Compare receipts with account statements to find unauthorized transactions. Also, consider signing up for text alerts whenever there is any activity on your credit or debit cards.
• Make sure you’ve installed both firewalls and malware-detection software on your computer and mobile devices…and be sure to update them frequently!
• Don’t reuse passwords! Every online account should have a different password. Furthermore, change your passwords regularly, and don’t leave them all in one place. You can use a password manager like 1Password, Bitwarden, or Dashlane to help keep track of them all.
