A: Protect Your On-Line Accounts

October 29th, 2006

Q: If You Engage in Any On-Line Trading, What is Essential?

Recently, E-Trade reported that Internet fraud perpetrated in client accounts cost the company $18 million in the third quarter while Ameritrade reported losses of $4 million so far this quarter due to similar events. The basic moral of this story is NEVER access your online account unless you employ firewalls with a Norton or Symantec internet security suite. Normally I set my internet security to tight. Occasionally I check the firewall statistics to check if anyone is trying to hack into my computers to steal information, passwords, etc. and there are literally hundreds of attacks on my computers daily from the U.S., Africa, the Phillipines - you name it.

Also, don’t make the mistake of accessing your online accounts while traveling on vacation in public intenet cafes and/or through unsecure wifi access. Many times, spyware installed on computers in public internet cafes will capture keystrokes and enable someone to steal usernames and passwords from financial accounts. If you must access your accounts while traveling, bring a laptop or wifi enabled mobile phone with you and ensure that your wifi network is secure. To read the full article regarding fraud on online trading accounts, click here.

Entry Filed under: General