2016 07 25 hacker geek main

It's more than just not giving out your number to people you don't know.

Did you know that hackers can easily trace your identity by simply typing in your phone number? Your Facebook account can be easily hacked, your credit card history can be retrieved. Yes, it's as simple as keying in your number. But here's the hard truth: More and more companies assume your phone is your second-factor authentication, raising potential for abuse.

So today let's recall some reminders and reasons why you should not give your phone number that easily:

As much as possible, don't use your smartphone number to register your social media accounts.
You have the option to sign up or authenticate your account using your email. Using your personal number enables hackers to take over your account. This is also especially true when you don't want every Facebook friend to know your number. Try checking your profile's About page and see if your personal number is visible to everyone.

Don't give your number to pop-up marketers at the mall.
Insurance brokers, car dealers, or that sketchy networking dude...just don't do it. Employees and companies do this to profile you or to directly contact you to pressure you into a sale. If you decline their offer, expect that certain company to copy your number into another company's database.

Not giving your number is also a preventive measure of identity theft.
Identity theft is currently the number-one rated cybercrime, and as the Web grows, so will the number of individuals whose identities are stolen online. This also applies to protecting your banking information since several banks already offer a mobile app for online banking.

Doing so also helps you protect your online business reputation.
If you're a business owner, secure your privacy in order to have good practice in business reputation management. Criminals can take your business information and create false email accounts and fake employee names and even hack into your business emails and social media accounts.

#y101 #alwaysfirst #technews