The eBay data breach that we covered last week has left a lot of people worried about their online safety. While we’ve talked a lot about how you can keep yourself safe online in general, there are a few extra things that you can do to stay safe on a website like eBay. The nature of the site means that you’re monetary information is right there for any hacker to get ahold of and see. Spending your money online isn’t difficult once a hacker gets ahold of it. That being said, check out these suggestions from The Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection and use them in conjunction with your previous IT safety knowledge.

• Change your password – Most of you know to do this anytime that a data breach has occurred, with big name companies (and even full web browsers) being attacked in the past year. Creating a strong password that a hacker is going to have a hard time getting ahold of is a smart way to keep your information secure.
• Don’t use your eBay ID or password elsewhere – If you maintain the same identification across different websites, it becomes increasingly easy for hackers to steal your information. If you decide that using it both places is something that you HAVE to do to remember your information, be sure to change your username and password elsewhere, too.
• Never give your personal information to eBay over email – Hackers are getting better at appearing like they’re sending you information directly from companies via email when what they’re really doing is stealing your personal information. Only use the website itself and even then limit the amount of information you’re giving out. You never want to be an open book for hackers.
• Check your credit report and bank statements – Know what money is going in and out of your account. You should also check your credit score once per year to find out if a credit card has been opened that you aren’t aware of or if there’s some change in your score that you can’t explain. This could mean someone has hacked your information and stolen your identity.

Keep yourself and your information safe by following the tips above and using good common sense on the Internet. If you own a company and are worried about people hacking into your company information, you should consider outsourcing your IT needs to a company like Working Nets who can help you figure out what the best way to keep your information safe is. To inquire about protection against security breaches, call us today at (443)-992-7394 or fill out our online form.

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Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2014/05/26/how-to-protect-yourself-after-the-ebay-data-breach/