How to Secure Your Personal Data from Identity Theft?

Securing your personal information has become a daunting task these days. Besides, the COVID-19 crisis has allowed hackers or other cyber-terrorists to exploit the discrepancies found in millions of users' social media profiles hassle-free. 

Due to that reason, cybersecurity issues like identity theft have increased at an alarming rate worldwide. As per the recent study conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research, losses related to identity fraud are continuously rising as they have surged by 15% during 2020 alone.  

Social media profiles aside, users prefer to conduct torrenting activity by visiting torrenting websites that help them download their desired torrent files on multiple devices free. This is where the issue of identity theft arises as torrent sites infect millions of users through malware. 

Therefore, if you are a torrenting freak like us, you should use a trustworthy VPN service like ExpressVPN for anonymous torrenting. Thus, you can protect yourself from the negative consequences of identity theft, such as loss of credit card information, usernames, passwords, banking details, etc., accordingly.   

Causes of identity theft

Hackers and other cybercriminals can use different ways to target particular users. Hence, you should not fall for harmful tactics such as phishing and malware that can infect your different devices significantly. This way, you can lose your sensitive personal information and official data too.  

Furthermore, you should refrain yourself from using public Wi-Fi networks as hackers can easily access them and manipulate your crucial data to fulfill their illicit objectives.  

What should I do to secure my personal data from identity theft?

Fortunately, you can follow different practices that will help you protect your personal information from identity theft appropriately. These practices are:

Use social media wisely

Social media websites or services can harm your online privacy a great deal. In short, you should not overshare your personal data on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms. Otherwise, there are chances you can become a victim of doxing as doxers can use your sensitive information and publish it over the web without your consent. Consequently, you can find yourself in hot waters.     

Do not download malicious content

If you do not want to be a target of phishing attempts and malware, do not download malicious content on your devices at any cost. Unfortunately, different websites contain malware and other viruses that can negatively impact the performance of your devices if you download them unintentionally. 

The downloaded malware or virus can access your personal data including usernames, passwords, etc and monitor your web surfing activities. Above all, it can sell your personal information to third-party marketers.   

Ask before submitting personal information at workplaces, schools, and others

Before you provide your personal data at schools, workplaces, businesses, websites, etc. you have every right to ask them why they need your information and how they will protect your information online. There is no harm in asking them about the consequences if you do not share your information with them.   

Use strong passwords

You must use password managers like Mitro that helps you in protecting your login details on different websites. Mitro is a browser-based password manager that prevents you from storing your crucial passwords on sticky notes and other documents. 

Luckily, you can install Mitro on different web browsers such as Google Chrome, Safari and Mozilla Firefox too.   

Secure your laptops, smartphones and other devices through updated software 

You should update all your devices regularly no matter if they are personal or official ones. If your devices have been infected by viruses or malware previously, you had better update them via antivirus or other required software to overcome security vulnerabilities. Additionally, it will protect your devices from various cybersecurity threats that might jeopardize your privacy in the future. 

Ghostery

Ghostery is another online privacy tool ideal for improving your online anonymity appreciably. It is an attractive browser extension that helps you discover websites that monitor or track your online browsing activities. 

Considering the issues of online tracking, you can avoid visiting such websites. Hence, you can surf the internet from anywhere without compromising your privacy.       

Virtru

Virtru is another impressive email encryption service like GNU Privacy Guard that encrypts all your incoming and outgoing emails. Interestingly, you can install this excellent privacy tool as browser extension on Chrome and Firefox extensions respectively.   

Wrapping Up

When it comes to securing your personal information from identity theft issues, you should rely on a VPN. Apart from this, you should follow the other tips or suggestions described above to take your online privacy next level.

Moreover, you should alway keep an eye on different signs related to identity theft. These can be receiving new credit cards you did not apply for, receiving calls about bills of products you did not purchase, etc.  

In short, protecting your personal data online is not a tricky task provided you have followed all the required cybersecurity measures smartly.