subject: Four Vital Tips To Securing Your Personal Data Throughout Its Life Cycle [print this page] Tips on securing your personal information throughout its lifecycle include keeping documents in a safe place, regularly evaluating your documents, checking the whereabouts of your personal files, and destroying unessential information appropriately.
Identity fraud cases are fast increasing in number because of the improving skills of the robbers and the carelessness of individuals in taking care of their personal files. Due to this, you need to protect your personal information at each part of its lifecycle to secure it from these criminal acts.
Keep files in a safe area
Transfer and keep all your documents in a place that is safe from unauthorized access. For the files on your computer, be sure that you put them in a secure location. Always set your computer to automatically lock after being idle for some minutes and to only be unlocked with a password. Your password should also be changed every few months and utilize characters that include both uppercase and lowercase characters and something that isn't obvious information. Many individuals utilize their birthdays or even the word "password," and most identity thieves know about this. Choose passwords carefully so no one else can get into your account without your consent. For paper files, keep them secure in an area which you can lock and be the only one who has the key. Certainly, this safe area must be made of a heavy material, such as a metallic vault, so the entire container cannot be carried away with all your documents inside.
Regularly examine your files
Check your personal documents regularly to ascertain if there are errors or information which needs to be modified. You must also ensure that while you are accessing or processing any of your information it is done in a secure manner. In addition, for papers which you plan to send via mail courier, be sure that they are packaged safely. Always utilize a dependable courier which you know and who can provide you a monitoring service. Then, verify that your package was received by the proper person and in the same way as you had wrapped it.
Track the whereabouts of your private documents
Always use a tracking service that will give you details regarding papers you may have sent, replicated, or distributed. Log every time you have any of these tasks performed so you can easily find an issue whenever one occurs and immediately resolve it. It can also be utilized as a way to manage the damage for a problem that may unexpectedly occur.
Destroy unessential files properly
When data is no longer important, you should dispose of it properly, such as terminating account access or closing membership accounts. For instance, if a particular data encoder has already completed his jobs, you should close his account and also membership so there'll be no reason for anyone else to access the account other than you and the other data encoders. For paper documents, you need to engage shredding services either on site or in a safe location. If you opt to have papers shredded in a place other than on-site, it is highly recommended that you have someone you trust to watch the proper destruction of the papers. Alternatively, you can also buy a shredding machine which can provide the highest security you can afford. Then, you can destroy all your documents right in your own workplace.
You can reduce the risk of becoming a victim of identity theft even further by limiting the number of individuals who can access your personal documents.
