Public Safety members are continuously at risk on-line for various reasons, from bad actors attempting to learn your whereabouts to general fraud schemes. Protecting yourself on-line is a crucial step to personal and financial safety. Here are some ways you can protect your data:
- Home Protection
- Create a living will to protect your assets.
- Homestead properties (where applicable).
- Establish advance directives for medical care (DNR, blood type, organ donor, etc.).
- Financial Protection
- Credit Bureaus – you can get free credit check from them annually or contact them if you have had a credit breech to freeze your credit.
- Equifax http://www.equifax.com
- Experian http://www.experian.com
- Credit Bureaus – you can get free credit check from them annually or contact them if you have had a credit breech to freeze your credit.
- TransUnion http://www.transunion.com
- Credit Karma is a free website and mobile APP that monitors your credit. They also have several useful tools https://www.creditkarma.com
- Create transaction alerts on bank accounts and credit cards based upon your risk tolerance.
- Use a Multi-Factor authentication on all accounts or an authenticator APP when possible.
- Social Security Administration has a Multi-Factor authentication you can add to your account http://www.ssa.gov
- Add a personal identification number (PIN) to your account to prevent unauthorized access.
- Federal Trade Commission opt out to remove your information from marketing lists:
- Call (888) 5-OPT-OUT (678-688)
- Register your cell number at http://www.donotcall.gov
- When receiving calls from unwanted solicitors, you can report them back to the FTC.
- Be weary of pressing numbers on phone trees of unsolicited calls (it is better to hang up and block numbers from your phone.)
- Online search delete list: Opting out of many services that sell your information online is helpful to prevent potential exploitation. From the following list, you can have your name removed from their databases. You may have to search the site to see if your information is in their database, and then opt out.
- https://www.beenverified.com/app/optout/search
- https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/removal
- https://infotracer.com/optout/
- http://www.instantcheckmate.com/optout
- https://www.intelius.com/optout
- https://isapps.acxiom.com/optout/optout.aspx
- https://www.spokeo.com/optout
- https://thatsthem.com/optout
- https://www.truthfinder.com/opt-out/
- http://www.xlek.com
- Online Protection
- Social Media
- Agencies across the US recognize that social media is a facet of life in today’s technological world. Even so, public safety officials should proceed with caution so they do not bring unnecessary attention to themselves from internal policy violations to private messages that can impede your reputation or alert bad actors to any personal identifiers about yourself or loved ones. While you have the right to express yourselves as private citizens online, it is important to make sure you are protected first and foremost- please consider what you share.
- Personalize your private settings (make accounts private including photos and posts). Keep personalized information limited.
- Turnoff geolocation features.
- Remember, once it has been posted, it is always posted.
- Social Media
- Computer & Cybersecurity
- Cyber safety tips can be found at:
- Consider using a virtual private network (VPN) application to encrypt your communication when connected to untrusted networks.
- Secure your home Wi-Fi and all connected devices with strong passwords and consider changing them frequently. Consider a password management tool.
- Be sure that your computer devices are up to date with the latest software updates.
- Delete unused APPs on your mobile devices.
- Use multi-factor authentication when available.
- Use anti-virus protection and firewall.
- Avoid opening up suspicious emails and be suspicious of emails, phone calls, and flyers.
- Other helpful tips can be found at the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency at https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/tips