6 Tips on How to Protect Bank Accounts from Hackers

The convenience of online banking is hard to resist. Direct deposit and debit cards have made the weekly visits most people used to make to...

The convenience of online banking is hard to resist. Direct deposit and debit cards have made the weekly visits most people used to make to banks unnecessary. However, along with that convenience has come vulnerability.

The FBI got an average of 1,300 complaints, totaling more than $3.5 billion in losses in 2019, owing to cybercrime. Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission observed some 650,000 instances of identity theft during that same period.

Long story short, protecting your bank accounts from hackers has become more important than ever in his age of easy banking.

6 Tips on How to Protect Bank Accounts from Hackers

Here’s what you need to know to protect yourself.

1. Manage Your Passwords Intelligently

Yes, remembering “SuperCaliFragilisticExpialidocious1937#$%” is easy to do, once you’ve committed it to memory. But applying it to every single password-protected account you have is begging thieves to enter your temple to plunder, pillage and lay waste to all you hold dear.

Use a different password for everything.

Believe it or not, one of the easiest ways to remember multiple passwords is to write them down on a piece of paper and store it in a place that others would not think to look for it. Yes, go Old School. Hackers use computers, making it easier to protect a piece paper than the files on your machine.

Along those same lines, one of the best savings account security tips of all is to change your passwords on a regular basis. Freedom Debt Relief’s overview of savings account vulnerability shows that the longer you leave a password in use, the more likely it is to be compromised.

2. Embrace Two-Factor Authentication

There’s a reason vendors ask for that three-digit number on the back of your credit card when you make purchases online or by phone. Anyone who obtained your debit card number fraudulently probably did not gain access to the three-digit security code.

This second form of authentication keeps your account safer.

Take advantage of two-factor authentication whenever it is offered to protect an online account. Yes, this means you’ll have to take an extra step to perform an activity such as confirming a number sent to your mobile device before you can access an account. However, it also means that nefarious types will encounter another stumbling block, which could cause them to look for an easier target.

3. Don’t Use Public Wi-Fi

Conducting banking over public Wi-Fi is like standing on a busy downtown sidewalk and announcing all of your account access information at the top of your lungs for all passersby to hear. Public Wi-Fi is just that — PUBLIC WI-FI! Everyone has access to it and hackers routinely run “sniffer” programs to snag that data as it is transmitted. Don’t conduct financial transactions using public Wi-Fi, nor should you access ANY password-protected account using public Wi-Fi.

4. Perform Software Updates Immediately

Software updates for your mobile device and your banking applications are issued from time to time. These are often conducted in response to the revelation of a security vulnerability of some sort. Ignoring the update leaves your accounts open to the newly discovered flaw.

5. Enable Activity Alerts

Banking applications offer notifications whenever money is deposited or withdrawn from your accounts. Enable them and set them to the lowest possible alert threshold. That way, any activities in your accounts will be brought to your attention immediately. The sooner you spot fraudulent activity, the less severe its consequences.

6. Do Not Click on Popup Ads

In ancient mythology, the city of Troy was considered impenetrable, until its citizens got too full of themselves. Flattered by what they thought to be a gift of tribute, they rolled the Trojan Horse through their defensive gates. That night, marauders emerged from the “gift” and sacked the city. Malware installed in popup ads works the same way. You see something that looks too good pass up, click on it, and the hacker’s cyber minions are unleashed to plunder your data.

Protecting your bank accounts from hackers is largely a matter of common sense. Of course, common sense isn’t always common, so hopefully these tips will help get you going in the right direction.