Cyber Security & Identity Theft - What Everyone Should Know About Cyber Security & Identity Theft

In this article you will discover the most common types of cyber crime that lead to identity theft fraud and pose financial risks to computer users. You will also learn the best measures that you can implement to increase cyber security on your computer.

One of the biggest cyber security threats these days is the identity theft. Cyber thieves use all kinds of sneaky methods (hacking, use of spyware for intercepting information, etc.) in stealing personal and financial information from their victims, mostly from the computers.

The latest of these nefarious identity theft frauds even sports a name: phishing (pronounced like ''fishing""). The cyber thief sends a an e-mail that looks like it came from a genuine and reputable site (mostly from financial institutions as Citibank, eBay, PayPal, Best Buy and others), telling you there is a problem with your account.

The e-mail will ask you to on a link in the e-mail, and you are taken to a site that looks exactly like that of your bank. There, they will ask you to fill out again your Social Security or credit card numbers, and/or other confidential numbers. This information will be used by the cyber criminals to access your accounts.

Your identity theft security can be at risk form so called spyware that cab be installed on your computer. The spy ware can be installed from e-mail attachments or from internet downloads. In both instances the installation is stealth and the user is unaware. These spyware programs register user computer activities including passwords, usernames social security and account numbers and send them to the criminals.

The following are some ways to minimize the risk of identity theft:

o             Do business with reputable companies - be careful as attackers misled you to believe that you are visiting the real site, so always use your bookmarked web addresses instead from e-mail links;

o             Have a security mindset - always be skeptical of unfamiliar sites and links, suspicious e-mails and IM messages;

o             Maintain up to date Anti-virus software and firewall- an anti-virus software and firewall will protect your computer from attacks that may steal or modify data in your computer. Make sure to keep your anti-virus program and firewall up to date.