Identity Theft - Are You Making It Easy.

With the shopping season in full swing even though we are experiencing a difficult time across all industry sectors there is one business that is surpassing even the mighty retail giants in full Christmas swing when it comes to growth, sadly though for many victims the particular industry in question is identity theft.

Combating the risk of identity fraud should be high on everyone’s agenda but some people are still unsure what it actually is. Without putting to fine a point on it, it is literally the theft of your identity both personal and financial. An alias using your identity and financial information could literally drain your accounts and put you into debt into the bargain.

Are you aware for example how easily somebody could obtain a copy of your birth certificate or even a copy of you bank account details? Unfortunately the answer is far too easy.

Applying a little common sense can go a long way with a little change in your thought processes. For example the next time you receive one of those annoying “you’ve been pre approved” credit card offers, before you throw it straight in the bin ask yourself why you are happy to give the chance to a complete stranger to obtain your (all but your signature) completed form. That’s surely asking for trouble.

If you bank online and don’t consider any of the above a risk then, you still need to consider your internet usage habits. We have all been educated to not use the same passwords and serial numbers for all our accounts and transaction, but living in the real world we all struggle to remember numerous password and user combinations and tend to use the same one leaving ourselves wide open.

Is your antivirus updated regularly, do you always download the updates as they come in, will LATER be soon enough, or will it be too late? When you upgrade your computer systems, a new laptop for Xmas a bargain in the sales or maybe an online auction purchase, how do you dispose of your old system, in particular your hard drive?

It is much easier than you think for a computer technician to recover your details from your hard drive, even when you think you have deleted them. Or for a data recovery expert to recover the deleted partition when you formatted or wiped them off with free software; after all a data recovery company can recover your information even if it’s a few months out of date.

Did you know you can have a hard drive which you no longer require either shredded or securely wiped so that your details are no longer recoverable?? The drive can be physically shredded into little pieces even the top data recovery companies or jigsaw enthusiasts could not reassemble your data then, like wise the drive can be secure wiped and just the motor and heads used for parts by hard drive recycling companies.

To find out more about secure data wiping and hard drive disposal call or speak to your local data recovery services company. For visit here for more great computer and laptop repair help.