Cybersecurity Tips to Prevent Fraud and Protect Your Private Information
As technology evolves, cybercriminals are using new techniques to compromise their victims’ personal information, steal their identities, and commit fraud and theft. Veris is dedicated to protecting our clients from fraud and safeguarding your privacy and personal information. As part of our efforts, we will share a list of three simple and practical things you can do to help prevent hackers and cybercriminals from accessing your accounts.
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Freeze Your Credit and Enroll in Credit Monitoring
Freezing your credit is one of the simplest ways you can protect yourself from fraud. Each of the three major credit reporting bureaus: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax will “freeze” your credit. The enrollment process is relatively simple and there is no charge for this service.
Once your credit freeze is in place, no creditor will be able to access your credit report, which limits the ability of anyone to open a new credit account in your name – even you. You would need to contact the credit bureaus to “thaw” your credit each time you needed to apply for any new line of credit or loan but this is as simple as logging into each website and initiating a thaw.
Parents should also strongly consider freezing their children’s credit as well – no matter how young your children are as child identity theft is a significant and growing problem – one study found that children are 51 times more likely to have their identity stolen than an adult.1 Freezing your child’s credit through the credit bureaus and monitoring their credit reports for signs of identity theft can help protect them from scammers until they are old enough to monitor and manage their own accounts.
If you want additional support monitoring your family’s credit, consider enrolling in the paid credit monitoring services offered by one of the credit reporting bureaus. Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax each offer 24/7 credit monitoring and will send alerts if they detect suspicious changes to the subscriber’s credit file or signs that their social security number or other sensitive information has been compromised.
2. Start using a password manager for ALL your accounts.
Secure passwords are not memorable. Experts suggest that the safest passwords are long (at least 15 characters – and the longer the better) and include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols such as !, #, &, or %.2
To make it easier to protect your passwords, adopt a password manager that will help you create strong, unique passwords that will be harder for hackers to crack. Find a solution that will store your passwords and help you seamlessly log into your online accounts so you don’t ever have to remember a password or write anything down.
Even if you are using a secure password manager, if you ever suspect that an unauthorized person accessed any of your accounts, go ahead and update all of your passwords immediately.
3. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (also known as MFA, 2-Step Verification, Two Factor Authentication, or 2FA) on all of your personal accounts – starting with your financial accounts and email.
When you have MFA set up, service providers will seek to verify the authenticity of any login request by contacting you to confirm that it really is you making the request.3
When you are setting up Multi-Factor Authentication, choose to use authenticator apps or security keys whenever possible. Receiving text messages to authenticate access may seem easier, but this method is less secure as text messages can potentially be intercepted by hackers.4
The More Precautions You Take, the Better
We ask our clients to consider taking precautions like these to support our efforts to protect your privacy and the security of your financial assets.
Vigilance and layered security protocols are the most effective defenses against cybercriminals and fraudsters. While no single method guarantees total protection, a deliberate, multifaceted approach significantly reduces risk. Taking as many of the above recommended steps as possible will help protect your financial assets and personal data from malicious threats.
Veris has adopted a robust data security plan and implemented a variety of policies and procedures to shield your information. We provide regular security training to our staff to ensure they are aware of emerging threats and the steps they need to take to avoid risks. We also periodically partner with cybersecurity experts to test the security of our firm’s network with an aim to ensure no bad actors can compromise your data.
We will be publishing more tips like these in the future! If you have any questions about cybersecurity risks, you can send an email to info@veriswp.com and we will seek to get you the answers you are looking for.
1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveweisman/2024/09/13/the-unknown-danger-of-child-identity-theft/
2 https://privsec.harvard.edu/use-strong-passwords
3 https://www.cisa.gov/MFA
Disclaimer
The information provided herein is provided for educational purposes only, represents only a summary of topics discussed, and reflects the opinions of the author. You are strongly urged to independently evaluate what is most appropriate for you under the circumstances as this content is impersonal in nature.
In 1903, Maggie Lena Walker established St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in the majority-Black community of Jackson Ward in Richmond, Virginia. Born to a formerly enslaved mother and abolitionist father in the segregated Jim Crow South, Walker became both the first woman and first Black woman to charter a bank in the United States, an achievement that positioned her as one of the nation’s most prominent business leaders.¹
Major Richard Robert Wright, Sr. was born enslaved in 1855 in Georgia, a decade before the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. After emancipation, Wright pursued his education in Atlanta and went on to earn a master’s degree from Atlanta University. He served as a major in the U.S. Army—becoming the highest-ranking Black officer during the Spanish–American War—before returning home to build a thriving career in academia. He eventually served as a college president and co-founded an academic organization to support Black scholars.⁵
Norman L. McGhee Senior was already a successful attorney and real estate dealer when he founded the first Black-owned brokerage firm in the United States to be licensed by the National Association of Securities Dealers.¹⁰
In 1953, at just 25 years old, Lilla St. John passed the New York Stock Exchange licensing examination for financial advisors, making her the first Black woman in the United States to do so.
In 1971, Travers J. Bell founded Daniels & Bell, the first Black-owned investment firm to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.¹⁶
