Keeping your E-Wallet Secure

Whether you enjoy some occasional online shopping, like to bet away at internet casinos, or even if you've completely switched up from the old paper money orders and are now paying your bills exclusively online, the odds are you will probably use the Internet to hold your hard-earned money for something somewhere along the way.

While the e-wallet service you select may have security measures in place to keep the hackers out of their servers, that still doesn't mean your money isn't personally vulnerable to attack. So, it's always wise to take some steps to ensure your funds don't come up MIA.

What can you do to protect to online money? First and foremost, you want to make sure you're putting your funds into a secured online banking system, such as PayPal, Click2Pay, MoneyBookers, or another notable service. Their security means you won't be robbed on their end, but it's still down to you on yours to keep your funds safe.

The next step, of course, is installing a great anti-spyware program that offers real-time protection. You want to cover live PC usage and not simply use an occasional scan, because Trojans and other backdoor methods can be sent to you via cookies from pages you visit, links you click, etc. A real-time program blocks these efforts and thus keeps your personal data safe.

Something obvious: make sure your password is totally secure, using something that looks like this "M-y_pAs$W0r.d1" rather than something like "mypassword." And something not so obvious: use a bank account for a transfer medium rather than a credit card. It's much harder for thieves to hack your routing numbers than it is to yank your CC digits.

Next on the list, never access your account directly from a public terminal (including public computers and public networks) or a mobile device when you're out and about. You can't risk anyone else sitting down with your data stored on the PC, and if you lose your phone, the person picking it up may not toss it in the lost and found box. They're probably going through your data to find the goodies.

Yeah, it seems like a lot to go through just to order shoes or play real money blackjack, but your e-wallet should be treated like a bank and not something you access on the fly or carry around on your sleeve.

Anyone with your password can access your money, and anyone with access to your computer data has access to your password. Logically, this also means you should never tell anyone about your password.

Most of these measures are strictly common sense and don't rely on the latest software out there, so it may seem like a no-brainer. But, you would be surprised at just how many people give up access to their online funds because they assume that guy on the bus wasn't looking at their iPad's screen or that using the café's connection was secure. 

 

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