As online payments via laptop or phone increasingly substitute physical credit cards and wallets, it’s more prudent than ever to understand what risks to financial data lie in the digital space. Whether you’re a business owner or concerned individual, the following tips will help you understand the danger and take actionable steps to minimize it.
Safeguard Your Account Information
Convenience should never trump security when it comes to login details, especially when they relate to your financials. And yet, people continue to use passwords that are either same-y or weak, even for accounts as important as these.
It takes little time and effort to guess common passwords. Meanwhile, your bank account can still get compromised if another service you signed up for with the same credentials suffers a data breach.
An easy fix is to use a password manager and multi-factor authentication. The manager will create long and unique passwords and store them securely. On the other hand, MFA will deny access without another means of verification, like a fingerprint or temporary code, even if an account’s credentials become compromised.
Enforce Access Controls
MFA-backed strong passwords may be enough for individuals. Companies intent on protecting their financial information should implement extra measures.
For example, role-based access control segments users based on their role and the privileges needed to perform their role adequately. This reduces the likelihood of insider threats since low-level or previous employees are never in a position to access and steal sensitive information like payroll or earnings reports.
Provisions also need to be made for remote employees, and VPNs help in two essential ways. On the one hand, they provide an encrypted connection that safeguards remote employees’ internet activities and can prevent them from stumbling onto known harmful websites. On the other hand, a VPN acts as a verification and trust measure since only the sanctioned employees who use it can access your internal networks.
To future proof and double down on the security, take a look at VPNs that are post-quantum ready. This is because the attackers can save your encrypted traffic now and unlock it later with quantum advances, so post‑quantum ready VPNs help protect long‑lived data and avoid disruptive upgrades.
Know how to Recognize and Avoid Phishing
Human nature remains the chink in any cybersecurity strategy’s armor, and few attacks are as adept at exploiting it as phishing. A large portion of phishing messages appear as if coming from one’s bank, credit card issuer, or online payment platform.
They’ll claim there’s an upcoming expiration date or account-related problem that you can only “settle” by following a link to a spoofed website. The criminals who set up the site will then steal and misuse any login details or credit card information you enter. Since financial information is at risk, identity theft and fraud are common and devastating consequences.
Large language models and social engineering have made sending convincing phishing emails much easier. Learning how to recognize these scams is crucial. However, it’s also more important than ever to limit your digital footprint so that phishing scammers can’t turn easily accessible information against you.
Avoid Using Unsafe Networks
Online payment gateways and banking apps have made paying anytime from anywhere ubiquitous. While great for convenience, this also means people will engage in online transactions without considering the safety of the sites and networks they use.
Public Wi-Fi is particularly problematic. It’s not hard to monitor or fake, so connecting to it risks having any unsecured communication and transactions compromised and exploited.
Financial institutions and responsible websites provide some protection, but that can’t be said for the internet at large. Using the most free VPN available whenever you go online will encrypt the connection entirely, ensuring safety from man-in-the-middle attacks and snooping while preventing sensitive data from being exposed.