12 Tips for Protecting Your Online Privacy

Protect Yourself Online

Our members' account security and privacy is our first priority. To help maintain the security of your accounts, we encourage you to follow the guidelines below to maintain the highest possible protection:

1. Protect your PINs and passwords; create PINs and passwords that do not use readily identifiable information like names, birthdates, and phone numbers.
2. Never reveal your access codes or passwords.
3. Change your access code password frequently. You can change your Online Banking access code password in the "Preferences" options at any time.
4. Never send private account or personal information such as identification numbers, amounts, or share/loan identification numbers via email. When clicking on an email link, your email application is automatically started for you in an unsecured environment.
5. Notify your credit union of any suspicious email or telephone inquiries, such as those seeking account information or online passwords.
6. When applying online for any financial account, ensure that you are dealing with a reputable, federally insured institution with secured web pages.
7. When at a financial institution web site, check the site's URL to be sure it matches the bank's URL, and look for misspelled words or other signs that it may be "spoofed." Notify the financial institution if the site looks suspicious.
8. Never make online financial transactions via sites and/or institutions with which you're not familiar. Many thieves set up fake sites to steal money from unsuspecting victims.
9. Activate protection. If your operating system or software has a firewall, spam blocker, or other built-in security application, make sure it's turned on. Also activate spam filtering and other online protection provided by your ISP or email service, such as Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail. For spam, that may be enough.
10. Update and renew. Set your operating system and security software to update automatically. Spam, spyware, and virus-detection programs incorporate "rules" or "definition" files that must be updated regularly to catch the latest threats.
11. Upgrade your computer and browser to the latest, most secure versions.
12. Install a toolbar with security features from a reputable anti-virus software vendor.