10 Tips to Secure Your Bank Account

Bank fraud and online scams result in billions of dollars’ worth of losses every year. They climbed to $56 billion 2020. These range from identity theft to financial fraud to hacking, etc. Some of these scams are easy to avoid if you institute simple security checks for you bank accounts.

So, here are 10 tips to secure your bank account.

1. Use a Password Manager to Generate a Secure Password

Generating a secure password is the most basic of security steps. Yet very few people actually follow it. Most people use just one password for multiple accounts. Hence, if just one account is compromised, so are all the others.

Password managers are standard products now. You can use the one in your browser or use a more premium alternative like 1Password to generate and save unique passwords for you. With password managers, you’ll only have to remember one password to log in to your password manager account. All the rest will be filled in automatically.

2. Use Multi-Factor Authentication

Passwords, no matter how secure, can be cracked given enough time. However, the added secure layer of multi-factor authentication can give you a further advantage. If you have this option available for online banking, use it now.

Note: DON’T USE SMS-BASED AUTHENTICATION METHODS. They can be compromised very easily.

It’s recommended that you go with either an authenticator app-based method, or a device-based method of authentication.

The former uses a QR-code based code generator which cycles through a new code every 30-60 seconds. The latter prompts a device (tablet or phone) to grant access to your account. Both these methods rely on communications which can’t be intercepted as easily as SMS-based authentication.

With this method, even if someone guesses your password, they won’t be able to access your account. This is one of the best tips to secure your bank account.

Most banks now have an online banking app. Most of those apps allow you to pair either fingerprint-recognition or face-recognition with logins. With that, you’ll pair biometric authentication with your bank login and make it more secure.

What’s more, you won’t need to remember your login details either. However, do remember to save these details in your password manager or your browser, or write them down somewhere.

4. Use Hide My Email

Hide my email is a great feature which allows you to create a fake email to sign up for services. The fake email diverts all messages received to your actual email address. This way, if one of your fake email addresses is leaked in a hack, you won’t be fully compromised. You can just delete that fake email and sever its connection from your actual.

The 2 most popular fake email services are:

Apple’s Hide My Email Service

This is coupled with every iPhone or iOS device. Apple’s “Sign in With Apple” service is also paired with it. Even if a website doesn’t support “Sign in With Apple”, you can still create a fake email address in Apple’s Hide My Email service. Coupled together, you’ll never have to give out your real email address again.

DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection Service

DuckDuckGo has basically replicated Apple’s service, but across platforms. While the service is more likely less secure than Apple’s, because of the huge gape in resources, it’s still useful.

Banking alerts including transfers, new beneficiaries, payments, etc. should all be coupled with alerts to your phone and email account. This may seem unnecessary and irritating, but it’s to prevent unauthorized use of your account. With these alerts, you can at least catch suspicious activity on your account immediately. Don’t disable these alerts under any circumstances.

6. Don’t Engage with Suspicious Content (Apps, Emails, Links)

Before clicking on an email, and especially before clicking on a link, just read the address. If it seems suspicious, and if it’s from an unknown source, delete it.

These links can compromise your email accounts and even bank accounts if you’re not careful. They can even bypass multi-factor authentication and find a backdoor to your account. You may lose a lot of money and not be able to recover it.

7. Use an Ad Blocker

To remove more than 90% of useless and irritating content on the internet, you should install an Ad-Blocker on your browser. “UBlock Origins” is the recommended choice since it’s open source and blocks 90% of all ads. You’ll barely ever see an ad on Google or YouTube or any other website.

A more complete option is to set up a Pi-Hole. This is a more advanced setup than just installing an Ad-Blocker. However, it’ll completely remove ads from any device you use including smartphones, smart appliances, etc.

8. Turn on Automatic Updates

Keep your devices updated with the latest security patches and upgrades. These security patches usually fight off malicious content and hacks which are widespread. This goes for all your programs and apps. These are all points of vulnerability which can be exploited by hackers and malicious actors. Don’t give them the chance to exploit you. This is one of the most important tips to secure your bank account.

9. Monitor Your Bank Account

It’s a good idea to check your bank account every week or so. You’ll stay aware of any inconsistencies or any errors. This is another layer of security on top of security updates, multilayer authentication, and ad blockers. You can never be too careful.

10. Don’t Give Out Your Personal Details on the Internet

Finally, we end with a bit of common sense. As with Hide Email, and password managers, and multi-factor authentication, this has to do with a buffer from the internet. You shouldn’t give out your personal information freely on the internet.

Your date of birth, full name, or social security number are all forms of private information. Refrain from giving them out unless required. Unless it’s a service which needs to verify your identity like banking, insurance, or government services, then reveal less information.

If you follow these tips, you will be able to secure your bank account better than 90% of the people out there.