Information has always been power and that has not changed. These days people may say that data is valuable, but the expression means the same. So, if your information or your data is so valuable, how can you keep it private? In other words, how can you safeguard yourself and your savings?
The Internet, viruses, scanners, chips, RFID, credit cards and spyware make the job quite difficult, if a criminal wants to get hold of your data. Unfortunately, it is not good enough to hope that a data criminal will not choose on you.
Your bank, your insurance company or the government may give your details to them by leaving them on trains, throwing them in dumpsters or leaving them on hard drives in computers that they subsequently sell secondhand on eBay. It occurs several times a year that we hear of, who knows how many times more?
So, what can you do? Well, there are quite a few things that you can do, but the issue is that most people will not apply them until it is too late, hoping that they will not be a victim of data snooping.
The first thing to do is to try to safeguard your data. That sounds obvious, but how do you do it?
Let's start with your written name and address. You could inform your local council that you want to be taken off any lists that they pass on to anybody that asks for them. Similarly, you can have your address taken of the junk mail lists and you can have your phone number taken off the junk phone mail list. Ask your local municipality how to do this.
You could buy things with a 'post restante' address at your local post office. If need be, explain why to the company you are buying from why you are doing that. Or you could have your mail redirected from one address to another.
For example, if you have a lock-up address, use that address, but pay the post office to re-direct your post to where you wake up every morning. Another tactic to try is to vary your name. Add in your middle initial, or your full middle name. Add the suffix 'senior' or 'junior' and keep notes. If you get junk mail with these names, you know who to complain to.
You computer probably contains a lot of sensitive data and you should take care of it, not least because some of that data will be the email addresses of your acquaintances and you do not want to introduce them to criminals, do you? Luckily, this form of protection is comparatively simple.
Make certain that you use a firewall and anti-virus software. Use the best you can afford. The best will cost about $50-60 a year. At $1 a week, it is not worth being mean. You can get free software to do the job and some of it is pretty good, but how many times do you want to pick the wrong one?
Then there is your wallet. RFID tags are inserted in most ID cards and credit cards these days and they can be read by the thousands of RFID readers in hotels, hospitals, offices and stores. Consider shielding your wallet, bag or purse or wherever you keep your cards, so that they cannot be read by random RFID readers.
The Internet, viruses, scanners, chips, RFID, credit cards and spyware make the job quite difficult, if a criminal wants to get hold of your data. Unfortunately, it is not good enough to hope that a data criminal will not choose on you.
Your bank, your insurance company or the government may give your details to them by leaving them on trains, throwing them in dumpsters or leaving them on hard drives in computers that they subsequently sell secondhand on eBay. It occurs several times a year that we hear of, who knows how many times more?
So, what can you do? Well, there are quite a few things that you can do, but the issue is that most people will not apply them until it is too late, hoping that they will not be a victim of data snooping.
The first thing to do is to try to safeguard your data. That sounds obvious, but how do you do it?
Let's start with your written name and address. You could inform your local council that you want to be taken off any lists that they pass on to anybody that asks for them. Similarly, you can have your address taken of the junk mail lists and you can have your phone number taken off the junk phone mail list. Ask your local municipality how to do this.
You could buy things with a 'post restante' address at your local post office. If need be, explain why to the company you are buying from why you are doing that. Or you could have your mail redirected from one address to another.
For example, if you have a lock-up address, use that address, but pay the post office to re-direct your post to where you wake up every morning. Another tactic to try is to vary your name. Add in your middle initial, or your full middle name. Add the suffix 'senior' or 'junior' and keep notes. If you get junk mail with these names, you know who to complain to.
You computer probably contains a lot of sensitive data and you should take care of it, not least because some of that data will be the email addresses of your acquaintances and you do not want to introduce them to criminals, do you? Luckily, this form of protection is comparatively simple.
Make certain that you use a firewall and anti-virus software. Use the best you can afford. The best will cost about $50-60 a year. At $1 a week, it is not worth being mean. You can get free software to do the job and some of it is pretty good, but how many times do you want to pick the wrong one?
Then there is your wallet. RFID tags are inserted in most ID cards and credit cards these days and they can be read by the thousands of RFID readers in hotels, hospitals, offices and stores. Consider shielding your wallet, bag or purse or wherever you keep your cards, so that they cannot be read by random RFID readers.
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on quite a few topics, but is currently involved with the best RFID printer. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Active RFID Management.
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