Two Simple Steps Protect Your Online Identity, Card Numbers And Personal Information

According to a report recently published by the Federal Trade Commission, an identity theft is reported in the US every 3 and ½ seconds. The bad news is that the rate of ID theft is increasing. Don’t risk having your credit card maxed out, a department store charge card cancelled, or your 401(K) retirement account wiped out.

The vast majority of online personal financial losses occur in two ways:

Fraudulent access to financial accounts through stolen Logon IDs and stolen Passwords, usually pirated through an online purchase or when accessing a financial account.
Charge and debit card transfers and purchases using stolen card numbers.

The good news is that with two simple and easy steps used in combination, you can safeguard your account logons, passwords, credit card numbers, security questions and answers, online identity, and other personal information, from being stolen .

Step One To Protect Your Online Identity, Card Numbers And Personal Information: Avoid The Cookie Monster

Protecting Your Passwords: Do Not Use Cookies To Remember Your Logon Information

It is easy to get a copy of your web browser cookie files. The really sharp bad guys only need the copy, and do not have to work to crack them. Even the multi-factoring security that banks and other financial institutions use are getting easier to overcome. Cookies do not comply with either the Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act (HIPAA) or the Gramm Bleach Bliley Act (GLBA) requirements for information security compliance. So, Step One is: Do Not Use Cookies To Remember Your Logon Information. Uncheck the RememberMe checkbox, and enter your logon values in Step Two.

Step Two To Protect Your Online Identity, Card Numbers And Personal Information: Don't Use The Keyboard Directly

Protecting Your Passwords: Do Not Use The Keyboard Directly

Programs called keyloggers collect actual keyboard activity. Then, they pass that info, along with other things like the web sites you have visited, to interesting places around the world. So, how to avoid using the keyboard when entering a Logon ID or Password, or answer to a security challenge? Use something that no keylogger or web browser can capture: Either mouse clicks on a virtual keyboard, or pasting from a clipboard.

Logon IDs And Logon Passwords: Size Does Matter

Protecting Your Passwords: Length, Size And Random Sequences Make Logon IDs And Passwords Extra-Secure!

The more characters that Logon IDs and Passwords have, the more secure they are against brute force hacking programs that are there for anyone to download from the internet. If both alpha and numeric characters are randomly selected, then the number of possible combinations grows dramatically. Using Sarbanes-Oxley combinations increases the difficulty even more. How difficult? An eleven-character Logon ID or Password, with upper and lower case alpha, along with numbers, has more possible combinations than there are stars in the Milky Way. Using seventeen characters increases the possible combinations to more than the number of stars in the visible Universe. Not even all of Google’s PCs have enough time to test even a fraction of the possibilities in a human lifetime.

You may forget your Logon ID or Password if either of them are very long, so you need an easy way to remember them, which is one of the things that our KeyRing product does exceptionally well for you. You'll see some more things that KeyRing does to help you remember and hide logins, passwords, card numbers, and other personal information, in the following topics, and in the QuickDemo presentation further down the page.

The Best Possible Password Management Technique: Changing Them

Whether once a week, once a month, or every now and then, changing your Logon IDs and Passwords is really cheap insurance. Some banks and other financial institutions now require you to change at least the Logon Password, and many allow you to change the Logon ID.

Password Strength: The Longer The Better

Logon ID and Password strength increases more than geometrically with the number of characters: The longer they are, the tougher they are to break. So, how does one memorize long Logon IDs and Passwords? The short answer is, again, our KeyRing.

Password Protection: Keeping Them Guessing

Generating Logon Passwords, and Logon IDs as random sequences makes it really hard crack them. The randomness eliminates the patterns we unknowingly use when making them up ourselves, like our birthdays, license plate numbers, and the like. It is amazing how much we are creatures of habit, even when it comes to naming things.

Protecting Your Charge Card, Debit Card And Personal Information

Protect your charge and debit card numbers, and any private information in your digital Roledex ®, such as personal and professional contact data, by:

Making sure that they are strongly encrypted.
Keeping the steps needed to access an account separate from those needed to obtain a card number or other private information.
Not using the keyboard directly to enter their values after they have been retrieved from their encrypted storage area.
Not saving the retrieved information, or allow it to be saved, in a browser cookie. To make doubly sure of this, you can delete cookies immediately after completing an online purchase or financial transaction.

Using One-Time Card Numbers For Enhanced Protection

A number of retail banks, including MBNA (now part of BofA), Citibank,and Discover, now offer One-Time Card Numbers, sometimes called Virtual Credit Cards, to help in the fight against identity theft and financial loss. These cards have a maximum value and expiration period that you can specify. This gives you added protection when doing online catalog shopping, where typically the card is not charged until the the order is shipped.

Protecting Your Personal Information On The Road

If your personal information, Logon IDs and Passwords are encrypted, then they can be added to a U3 USB Memory Stick as doubly encrypted and protected, and you do not need to put your personal information on your desktop or laptop. Even in public places, like libraries and airports, where keyloggers, WiFi sniffers and infected PCs abound, you will be safe. This allows you to take you laptop with you, but keep your logon IDs and Passwords in the U3 USB Memory Stick, and not in the laptop in case it gets stolen.

Increased Online Privacy Protection With Security Questions

Like where you met your spouse, the name of your first pet, and the like, security challenges are one or more questions presented randomly, for you to answer. The good thing is that cookies cannot handle these because they change all the time. As it happens, our KeyRing can easily and securely remember these, so you will never forget a security question, and its answer, again.

FutureWare KeyRing: Protecting Logon IDs, Passwords And More!

If you work with secured software or websites that require you to enter a Logon ID and Password, then you need FutureWare’s KeyRing! Applications or websites that require a logons can be protected from prying eyes and online data theft with KeyRings’ secure data encryption storage. KeyRing can safely store your private information and with a simple double click allow you to enter your information safely and securely. No longer will you have to write your logon ID and password on a Sticky Note and paste it to your computer screen or jot down your information on a notepad for all to see.

KeyRing Usage QuickDemo

KeyRings’ secure password management benefits include:

Defeats Keyloggers and web cookie intercepts.
Use on desktops and laptops, at home, office or when travelling.
Multiple encryption on all data for increased security.
Handles random challenges and multiple random security questions.
Encrypts and protects card numbers and related information (CVC, expiration date, etc).
Your own private digital Roledex ® for your personal information, organized any way you want it.
Use with any Web browser and any secured Windows program.

Websites.
Access databases.
Excel spreadsheets.
Word documents.
Password Protected Application Programs.

Generates random Logon IDs and Passwords.
Long-key and Sarbanes-Oxley random sequences.
Detects hacker attacks and virus infections.
Uses TravelGuard security for U3 SmartDrives.
Exceeds Federal HIPAA and GLBA personal information security requirements.
Schedules and prompts for password renewals.
Automatic backup.
With reliable form completion.

KeyRing can be

billboarded for promotions, gifts, and customer loyalty programs.

FutureWare Keyring: Protecting Logon IDs, Passwords And More!

We invite you to

download and test drive our KeyRing at no cost and without obligation, to see for yourself how simply and easily you can protect your online identity, card numbers, and personal information.