Signs of Phishing
Phishing is when some tricky online scammers pretend to be a friend or business you trust to trick you into sharing private information, like passwords or personal info. They do this through fake emails or messages, so be careful and double-check before sharing anything important. Always stay one step ahead and keep your info safe.
- Double-check the website address: Make sure the website address is spelled correctly and starts with “https://” with a padlock icon to show it’s secure.
- Be wary of urgent messages: If you receive emails or messages that sound too urgent or pushy, take a moment to think before acting.
- Look closely at the sender’s email: Check if the email comes from a familiar and trusted sender. Be cautious if the email looks a bit strange or has typos.
- Avoid clicking on suspicious links: If you get links in emails from unknown senders, it’s best not to click on them or download any attachments.
- Watch out for errors in the message: If the email has grammar mistakes or weird formatting, it might be a sign of phishing.
- Hover over links to check them: Move your mouse over links in emails without clicking to see the real web address. Make sure it matches the one you expect.
- Don’t share sensitive info via email: Legitimate companies won’t ask you to share personal information like passwords through email.
- Verify requests for money: If someone asks for money, it’s smart to double-check with them directly using official contact info.
- Use extra security with MFA: Whenever possible, turn on multi-factor authentication to add an extra layer of protection to your accounts.
- Keep everything updated: Keep your computer, antivirus, and web browser up to date to stay safe from phishing attacks.
- Stay informed and share knowledge: Learn about phishing tricks and teach your friends and family how to spot them too.
Detecting phishing attempts requires being vigilant and knowing what signs to look for. With these simple tips, you can stay safe and protect your personal information and online accounts.
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Protecting Computers and Mobile Devices
Your online security depends much upon the security of your computer, mobile device or tablet. Follow three simple steps to protect them.
- Keep your software up-to-date to ward off online threats. Most computer operating systems and program applications have settings for that allow for automatic updates, including those that relate to user security. It is suggested that users allow those updates to automatically be installed on their computer, thereby providing ongoing protection against current and known threats. You can usually go online, to official websites, and find out if you have the most current version of operating systems and applications.
- Keep your computer safe from prying eyes. No firewall and anti-virus software can defend against theft of, or physical access to, your computer or mobile device. Take precautions by requiring a password to log on to the connected device, and require that password to get past the screen saver.
- Guard your computer cache. Your computer cache is a specialized form of computer memory. Cache is designed to speed up the computer by prioritizing its contents for quick access. Users are cautioned to be careful about permitting their web browser to cache information (login IDs, passwords, user name, etc.) which contains banking or other critical and private information. To monitor and control your browser cache try these steps: (1) go the Help page of your browser, (2) search for “clear cache,” and follow the directions.
Related articles in our Financial Wellness Learning Center:
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Protecting Your Business Online Banking
Businesses should assign a high-priority to their online security and ensure appropriate resources to support that priority.
Think Strategically
- Determine the relative importance of information maintained by the company and the means of accessing that information.
- Office computers should be running the most current Professional (not Home or Student) operating systems.
- Screen savers should be enabled after a few minutes of inactivity and require the domain user name and password.
- Laptops should have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) installed so that the information on the hard drive can be protected via a good encryption scheme.
- Strong passwords should be required by domain policy.
- Every day each computer should verify that it is up-to-date with current operating system patches, software updates and malware protection.
- Develop your people to protect your business.
- The people in your company are about the biggest risk to information security you’ve got. Regularly and often train your people in security best-practices.
Business-grade tools
Consumer-grade software tools are generally insufficient for businesses. Your business must be able to manage technology components, preferably from more than one location. Business technology assets that must be managed centrally, not just individually, would include:
- Employee access and control (user accounts)
- Your internet domain name
- Your website (not the same as your domain name)
- Computers (software installation, updates and patches)
- Software
- Mobile devices
- The file server
- The internal network traffic (firewalls, routers, switches, et al)
- Wireless access points
- The phone system (especially if it’s a VOIP system)
- Surveillance cameras (especially if they are wireless)
- Doors
If your company has a dozen computers or more, protect sensitive information with well-formed, centralized management. In most cases, employees should not be allowed to install software on their computer, and the company should know when computers on its network are running out-of-date software – and be able to fix that problem quickly.
Small businesses can manage their systems on an individual, ad hoc basis. If your company has more than 10 employees, it should take a good, hard look at the people and the technology that stand in front of (not behind) its information. Perhaps it is time to hire an outside expert.
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How We Protect Customer Online Banking
Peoples Bank has extensive resources devoted solely to online security.
It starts with rigorous technology requirements, for itself and its partners. Extensive reviews and audits are regularly conducted. High standards and ethical behavior are demanded and received by employees and the employees of partners and vendors. The bank’s systems are protected by multiple physical and digital access control. The bank’s databases are protected by multi-factor authentication and off-set data connections. In addition, thousands of different types of transactions are constantly monitored for unusual or excessive activity. All of this requires substantial investment and resources, of a magnitude that is simply out of the reach of smaller institutions.
Nobody can protect against each and every threat. But Peoples Bank is doing all it can with known technology resources and insight to protect its information, your information.
User authentication
We go to great efforts to make sure that the person attempting to log in to an account on has been approved and is qualified to do so.
- At the time of account setup, the customer’s verified email account is used to make sure that only the person with access to that email account can begin the process of online account access.
- The user id is never the email address.
- The password is never emailed. A temporary password is emailed and intended to be used immediately. It is sent to the email address already set up on the account and does not include the additional piece of information needed to login, the user id.
- The password to our online system has a rigorous requirement of length and character combination.
Please talk to your knowledgeable and trained Peoples Bank employee if you have questions about online account access.
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