Gregory Evans made a lucrative living as a computer hacker before being sentenced to jail for stealing over $1,000,000 from companies such as ATT, MCI and Sprint. Evans, who started hacking computers in 7th grade, decided to use his criminal knowledge to educate others once he was released from prison. Now the CEO of Ligatt Security, Evans provides secrets on how to stay ahead of computer hackers and avoid being a victim of identity theft. –a.r.
What’s the first step to take before making an online purchase?
Whenever you sign up for anything online, make sure that the password you use is always different from the password you use for your Facebook or Twitter account. Most people go and do something online and someone who owns that Web site can go and look and see what your password is. Once they have your password and your e-mail address, they can go to your e-mail account and use that same password. Over 80 percent of the time, it’s the same password that will get them in. Now they have access to your e-mails and personal information. When you are shopping online make sure you are always using different passwords.
How can consumers shop online securely?
Use prepaid credit cards when you are making purchases online. If you are doing some purchasing at an online store you are not familiar with, get a prepaid card. Put exactly how much you plan on spending on that card and then shop from that card. That way, the hackers will not have your correct address and other billing information.
How can consumers determine whether or not a Web site is safe to purchase from?
Make sure your URLbar doesn’t say http. If it says https, that tells you that your information is secure. If it doesn’t have that ‘S,’ it isn’t secure. If the S is not there, what happens is that anybody that has hacked your info can change it and keep sending it to themselves.
