Another tip in a series provided by the Offices of Information Systems & Computing and Audit, Compliance & Privacy

Protect your Financial Data

With cyberattacks on the rise and data breaches garnering increased media attention, follow these six simple steps to help ensure your financial data is protected from nefarious actors.

1. Be familiar with your financial accounts and activities, check financial statements as soon as they are available and install banking apps, checking frequently for unusual activity.
2. Increasingly, banks and financial institutions allow “two-factor” verification to view accounts. This requires a secondary factor for verification, such as a smartphone, in addition to your account username and password. Two-factor verification ensures a stolen password, alone, cannot access an account. Check with your financial institution if two-factor verification is available and how to implement it.
3. Only carry your “must have” information and cards with you. If your mobile phone is enabled for secure credit card payments, consider leaving your credit cards at home if the merchant supports this. Never routinely carry your Social Security card with you.
4. Never provide financial data by email, text or phone when the call is placed to you. Always call banks and financial institutions directly when providing personal information or discussing accounts. If a bank calls you, call them back at their published contact number from their website or the back of your credit card, and immediately freeze your account if something looks suspicious.
5. Opt out of pre-approved credit offers sent in the mail. The three national credit agencies have set up a hotline and website (1-888-567-8688, www.optoutprescreen.com) to suppress your name from pre-approved credit offers for a five-year period.
6. When shopping or banking online, make sure your web browser is using a secure, encrypted connection to the website.  Look for “https” in front of a browser’s web address, where “s” ensures the connection is a secure connection.

For additional tips, see the One Step Ahead link on the Information Security website: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/news-alerts#One-Step-Ahead