The holiday shopping season kicks of this week!  Cyber criminals are at the ready to take advantage of the season to steal your information.  Having good cyber hygiene is important year-round, but it’s even more important this time of the year as we search for the perfect gifts for friends and family.  Our own Courtney Kay-Decker provides these valuable tips:

1. Never use your work passwords/phrases for personal accounts.  Ideally, you also should not reuse passwords/phrases on multiple sites. Duplicating passwords makes it easier for a compromise at one website to result in the compromise of many of your accounts.
2. Never use your debit card when shopping online.  Since a debit card pulls directly from your account, if you are compromised it is likely to take some time to get your money back. Credit cards provide better protection.
3. Be very, very careful when clicking on links! Cyber criminals can make an email appear to come from your favorite shopping site. Don’t take the bait! Cut and paste (or old-school write) that offer code, and go directly to the site instead of clicking on the email.

For more useful cyber tips, take a look at Courtney’s recent article published in Tax Notes State.  Though the article was written with tax practitioners in mind, the tips are equally applicable to all of us.  You can find the article here: How’s Your Cyber Hygiene TNS 10-21. If you paid attention above, you’ll think twice before you click on the link!  You can also find the article by going to our website, and searching for Courtney’s name.

Happy Thanksgiving to you from all of us at Lane & Waterman.