How well should you be really afraid of your online accounts?

What Should You Do if You Think You are a Victim?

• Report it to the appropriate people within the organization, including network administrators. They can be alert for any suspicious or unusual activity.

• If you believe your financial accounts may be compromised, contact your financial institution immediately and close the account(s).

• Watch for any unauthorized charges to your account.

• Consider reporting the attack to your local police department, and file a report with the NIGERIAN CYBERCRIME WORKING GROUP or the NIGERIA INTERPOL or The Cyber Regulations Appellate Tribunal

Protect Yourself with these STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Tips:

• When in doubt, throw it out: Links in email, tweets, posts and online advertising are often how cybercriminals try to compromise your information. If it looks suspicious, even if you know the source, it’s best to delete or, if appropriate, mark it as junk.

• Think before you act: Be wary of communications that implores you to act immediately, offers something that sounds too good to be true or asks for personal information.

• Make your password a sentence: A strong password is a sentence that is at least 12 characters long. Focus on positive sentences or phrases that you like to think about and are easy to remember (for example, “I love country music.”). On many sites, you can even use spaces!

• Unique account, unique password:  Having separate passwords for every account helps to thwart cybercriminals. At a minimum, separate your work and personal accounts and make sure that your critical accounts have the strongest passwords.

• Get two steps ahead: Turn on two-step authentication – also known as two-step verification or multi-factor authentication – on accounts where available. Two-factor authentication can use anything from a text message to your phone to a token to a biometric like your fingerprint to provide enhanced account security.