Online security isn’t necessarily taken seriously by everyone, there are users who do not bother to use online security software like firewalls, anti virus and anti spyware software. All of which are necessary to protect your system from intrusion and by extension your personal information. Identity theft occurs easily online because opportunities are never lacking for identity thieves. People are habitually careless about their information and no one ever really believes that identity theft can happen to them until it is too late.

Protecting your computer system from spyware

One of the most immediate dangers online and still an effective method used in identity theft today is through the use of spyware software. Spyware programs are small, quiescent pieces of code that work as background processes to collect user information as the user types and surfs the internet. Most spyware programs are designed to work with internet browsers since this is where users are likely to input credit card or banking information while shopping or paying bills online.

Online criminals are very savvy and are constantly updating their software and improving their methods to be more stealth and swift about executing a successful capture of your information. All online users should take the personal initiative to keep spyware off of their systems by employing the appropriate anti-spyware software and keeping it properly updated.

Updating your computer’s Operating System

Although there is more interest today in other platforms besides windows like Linux and MAC OS, 90% of computer systems that connect to the internet today are windows based PCs. Their inherent lack of appropriate native security makes these systems very easy to compromise by knowledgeable hackers and identity thieves.

Fortunately Microsoft does work hard to distribute security and OS patch updates to its systems on a regular basis. Keeping up with these updates will ensure that any security holes on your systems OS are properly patched. Having these vulnerabilities present is just another entry point that can be exploited with a computer virus or spyware. Most windows systems come configured with an automatic update tool that downloads and patches your system, do not disable this tool, it will do the footwork for you.

Using safe browsers to protect yourself

Antivirus experts like Symantec have said before that there’s no such thing as a safe browser, however some are worse than others. If you are still using Internet Explorer 6 or below, you’re wrong and you need to fix yourself. Internet Explorer has a long history of security holes which have been fixed for the most part in version 7. Even though Internet Explorer has undergone a major overhaul with an emphasis on security, it still has issues that can be overcome by using other browsers. Namely Firefox and Opera for PC systems. These two browsers have a much leaner user base, but do offer better security features than IE7.

Firefox and Opera have strong communities of developers who constantly contribute to security and usability of these browsers. Again, these browsers are known to be safer than Internet Explorer, however they’re not 100% safe, you can still be at risk if you frequent malicious sites that can execute code on your system the moment you load a page. So it’s important to also keep these browsers updated.

Keeping your information private

Obviously you never want to share your passwords with anyone online, you should also not ever volunteer personal information on chat rooms, via email, on social media sites or input this information on an online form unless the site is legitimate and secure. You can often tell if the site you’re inputting information on is secure if the lock icon appears in the status bar at the bottom of your browser or the address bar itself.

Keeping your information private also means being able to differentiate between a phishing scam and a legitimate source. Phishing scams typically occur via email, where you may be contacted by what appears to be a financial institution or an online source with whom you do business. The trick is for you to follow the links they send you and input your account information. No legitimate institution or company will ever ask you for this information via email, so ignore and delete these emails, which are almost always in your spam folder.

Stay away from sites where pirated software is freely distributed

It’s awfully tempting to get free software especially when it is a popular application that costs a lot of money. The main problem with these applications is that they’re almost never safe to use. The moment you install them on your system, you could be infecting your computer with viruses and spyware. Again, these small programs are very quiet and you won’t know they’re actually installing.

Sites that distribute free software are typically hosted under foreign domain extensions and they often move a lot to avoid being shutdown. So please consider this carefully when you find yourself with the opportunity to acquire free software.

Your identity has more exposure while you’re online, this is where you may sometimes do shopping, pay bills or transfer money on your bank’s online banking system. These are the opportunities that identity thieves take advantage of. Complex passwords are a good obstacle, they’re tougher to crack since there’s more guessing and it takes longer.

Identity thieves use password cracking software to gain access to simple passwords like your birth date, last four of your social, your mother’s maiden name etc. These passwords are easy to guess for someone who knows a thing or two about you. Some of these programs are pretty sophisticated, having compiled millions of password combinations it’s not that hard to get access to an account that’s not properly protected with a strong password.

How to come up with complex passwords

You have to take the time to come up with a unique and strong password and not just set a password with the first thing that comes to mind. The proper way to create strong passwords is to use capital letters, numbers and whenever possible special characters and include as many characters as you can remember. Using combinations of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and special characters will increase the security of your accounts and keep the thieves guessing some place else.

If you’re not used to creating strong passwords because of the habit of simply using your last name or “11111″ or “12345″ for every account you own, the best thing to do is to think of something you like or something that you know not many people are aware of. Let’s take for example the phrase Id Lock Network, you could come up with many combinations of this phrase as a password if you include special characters, numbers and capital letters in the phrase, like this:

!dL0ckNetw0rk – notice here that there are zeros replacing the “o” and the exclamation point replacing the letter I, we also have capital letters in this password. However, there are other even safer variations that we can come up with and even extend the password a few more characters to make it even safer, here are some more examples:

• !dL0CKnetw0rk!
• !dL0ckNetw0rk4ever
• !dL0ckNetw0rk$!
• !dL0ckN@tw0rk$!

You get the idea! Some online interfaces will not allow special characters, so this is when you have to get even more creative and use capital letters and numbers in combinations that still qualify your phrase as a strong password, like so:

• IDL0ckNetw0rk2000
• 1DL0ckNetw0rk1000
• 1DL0cknetw0ks2008

Creating strong passwords should become a matter of habit and it is an important step in protecting your identity from online identity thieves. It gets easier the more you practice it. You don’t need to remember several different passwords, but have at least 3 different combinations of the same passwords with one or two extra characters and numbers and special characters in different orders.

Protect your valuable personal information

For identity thieves, the personal information of others has an unspecified value, which basically presents an opportunity for potential gain at the cost of an unsuspecting victim. In many occasions people do not consider their information important enough to protect. They store sensitive information on their computer systems and forget about the dangers of identity theft.

I order to protect your information properly you want to begin by not volunteering your personal information online. This includes the social sites, games sites and any other entertainment portal where you may be inclined to use your true personal information such as your name and address. It’s a good practice to use anonymity while working online, instead of your real name use a nickname and don’t reveal your home address or specific details about your personal life or finances.

Never answer to solicitations from sources that claim to belong to financial organizations that you do business with. Normally phishing scams come from spammers who aimlessly address their emails to loads of recipients, the majority of whom will not open these emails, but it is those that do that are most likely to fall victim to identity theft via an email phishing scam. Financial and insurance institutions DO NOT ask for this information via email or phone, they already have it. So rather than follow any links on the emails or volunteer personal information over the phone, hang up and call your credit company or bank immediately and ask customer service directly if they tried to contact you.

Stop using file sharing software

A lot of people believe that file sharing is an easy way to get free software, music and movies, but forget about the security risks that these types of programs create for your computer system. File sharing is known for creating security holes and making files on your computer system available for others to pick and choose. A number of file sharing programs have come and gone since Napster, the originator of file sharing was taken out of commission due to copyright and legal issues. They are all based on the same technology which is a peer to peer (P2P) system where a file you download from someone else’s system can then be downloaded from your system by another user.

These programs are dangerous to the integrity of your system and therefore to the security of the personal information you store on your computer. Also consider that the applications you are downloading are often coded with spyware and viruses and this is where you can seriously jeopardize yourself.

Use security software that updates automatically

Whatever type of activity you’re going to do on your computer system it needs to be protected by antivirus, spyware and firewall software for maximum protection. It’s not good enough that the software be installed on your system it needs to be updated regularly. Most security software are updated automatically by default. It’s important that these settings be left alone and not altered otherwise you won’t get the latest updates to the new virus signatures and spyware programs that are affecting internet users on the internet.

Use the latest versions of Internet Browsers

Browser security is another issue that is often overlooked. If you’re still accessing the internet with Internet Explorer 6.0 or older versions, you’re at high risk. Spyware programs and viruses can easily get past the stoppage points that this browser offers. Other versions like IE 7.0 are a little more adequate. However, you should also consider using FireFox, Opera or Google Chrome. These browsers have better built in security features that can help to protect you while you’re online.

FireFox and Opera are highly configurable browsers and don’t have Active-X enabled by default like IE. FireFox in particular has a strong community behind it that contributes constantly to configuration and security features. Chrome is rather new, but offers a pretty stable interface for browsing the internet.

For more information on browser security and how to secure your browser, we recommend you read “Securing Your Web Browser” from Cert.org, this is a complete guide on browser safety and internet surfing.