Protect Your Identity

In our connected world, in addition to our physical identities like our names, addresses, driver licenses, social security numbers, we have our online identities.

Our online identities are the keys to open the doors to this connected world. However, unlike physical keys which can open a single door, in general, online identities are used to open a wide variety of doors and these online doors do not have physical restrictions. Online identities can be used to open the access to online resources everywhere in the world.

If you are not sharing your car keys or your home keys with strangers, you should also not share your online identity information with others.

More importantly, the online world keeps a record of almost every activity we perform. Therefore, we are creating sensitive and private information while we are surfing, conducting business, entertaining and learning. If we cannot protect our identities, we are not only faced with identity theft cases but also possible privacy incidents and of course, lots of private information including financial data, data about your activities, locations you visited, messages you received or sent, pictures can be exposed to the world.

Since your online activities can also be recorded, you will be accountable for your actions in the online world. If someone uses your identity, you will be held accountable for his or her actions. Moreover, you may also be legally responsible.

If an attacker can obtain your identity, he or she will be able to collect all the information you have stored or processed on your systems. After that, the attacker will hide themselves behind your identity and can attack other systems. Since it is impossible to track and find the attacker, the attacked system will see not see the identity of the real attacker but your identity. Hence, in addition to data and privacy loss, you will be liable and responsible for the attack.

500 Million. This is the number of identities stolen from Yahoo in 2014. Information is Beautiful shows the graphic of incidents with the largest number of identities disclosed.

If you protect your identity, you will not only protect yourself but also contribute to the protection of your community.

Therefore, it is very important to follow the password management guideline.

If you experience any identity theft incidents, please call the IT Services Assistance Center and change you passwords immediately.

Phishing attacks are the most common method to collect your information and to steal your identity. Therefore, please be aware of phishing attack and visit our website for more information about phishing attacks and the method to detect phishing messages.

Tips for protecting your online identity?

Passwords

Set a strong password and change your passwords as frequents as possible.

If you have difficulty to remember your password, you can use special applications called “password vaults”. You can find some examples of password managers below:

• Google Online Password Manager
• Apple iCloud KeyChain
• Dashlane
• MHISift eVault
• Keeper
• LogMeOnce
• Spideroak

Check before connect

Always check the web addresses before connecting to any web address or clicking to any link.

If you are using any of the financial services web site, follow the steps described below:

1. Do not follow any link
2. Directly write the address into the address bar in your browser.
3. Check the connection type.
   1. If you will give any type of personal information, including your username, password, account number, name, address, etc. the connecting must be an encrypted connection.
   2. The web page you are visiting must be must use “https” instead of “http”.
   3. Check the validity of the certificate.

Step 1: Directly write the address.

Step 2: Check the authenticity of the site.

Step 3: Check the security of the connection.

Step 4: Check the certificate to be sure that the website is the one you are willing to get connected.

Social media and security of your identity

Social networking sites are open to public and in general, anybody can see your posts, your photos, your locations, and your personal information. Therefore, everybody in the world can see anything you shared at any time.

It is also possible to send invitations to everybody. You may send invitations to anybody and you can get connection requests from anybody at any time. It helps you to extend your network however, at the same time it will increase your risk of exposure.

Please follow the below recommendations in order to mitigate your risk and protect your identity:

Passwords

• Use different passwords for every different application or website.
• Use strong passwords.
  • If you have difficulties to remember your passwords, please use a password-vault application.
• Social Networks like Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook are providing two factor authentication. Pleas activate two factor authentication if the service is provided by the website.

Limit your visibility

• You can limit your visibility and only your friends or your connections can see what you posted or you shared.

Be careful about what you post or share

• Please limit your posts about your personal identity
• Social Media is the worst place to post your driver license number, social security number, your address, even your birthdate.
  • Keep them as private as possible.
• Do not share information about your business, your work.

Use end-point-security solutions

• End-point-security solutions are not only anti-virus software but combination of different technologies to protect you, your identity and your systems.
• On your laptop, desktop or mobile devices like smart-phones, tablets end-point-security solutions help you to mitigate your risks.
• They can even help you to detect suspicious websites and connections.

Mobile world

• Screen locks always provide the first line of defense. Use any type of screen password, finger-print or combination keys to lock your devices.
• Use only trusted sites or stores to install applications.
• Enable “find my device” feature on your device.
• Always backup your information on your device.

 USB storage

• One of the most common way of data and information share.
• Always scan any USB storage when you connect them to your device by using your end-point-security solution.
• If you find a USB storage, please do not use it.
  • Dropping USB memories in the parking lots is the most common method to be used to install malicious software into your systems and the systems in your organization.
    • If you find a USD memory in a parking lot or in a public place, do not use it. Just throw it away.

Outside your organization or during the travel

• Public, free Wi-Fi connections have lots of risks. If you need to use open Wi-Fi connections, please follow the guidelines explained below:
  • If you have VPN access, always enable and use your VPN connection.
  • Do not give your credit card number or other financial
  • Do not use any type of financial institution website.
    • Do not use your online banking system.
  • Always keep in your mind that free, open Wi-Fi services can be monitored and it is possible to see and capture all of your traffic.

Disposal of your personal information

• Your devices store lots of information about you, your credit card number, your address, your social security number and other sensitive and private information. Therefore, if you want to discard your device, please remove all of the information on your device first.
  • Deleting a data on a disk did not delete the data physically. The data should be wiped completely:
    • Use any type of data wiping application to completely delete your data on the storage.
      • Eraser.
      • DiskWipe.
      • Darik’s Boot Nuke.
    • If you will not use the storage again, it is recommended to physically distract the
• Your documents on paper also contain a lot of personal and sensitive information. Paper documents should also be destroyed properly.
  • Dumpster diving is another common method to collect personal information.
    • Your credit card or bank statements contain enough information about you and your identity.
    • Use a shredder to destroy the documents before putting them in to your garbage bin.
    • If you can not find any shredder, tear your documents into smaller pieces.
• Discarding old credit cards
  • Credit cards carry sensitive and personal information.
    • Shred your credit card before throwing them.
    • If you do not have a shredder;
      • Put a magnet on the magnetic strip at the back of your credit card.
        • Magnetic field will erase every information about your card and the card will be useless.
      • Cut your card into smaller pieces.
      • Cut and destroy the chip on your credit card.

If you see any suspicious activity or if you are the victim of an identity theft, please call IT Services