At Continental Title Company, we understand that buying a home can be a stressful process. You’ve worked hard to find the perfect home for you and your family, and you’re making one of the largest purchases of your life! At Continental Title, you can have faith your transactions are safe.
Use two-step authentication
To keep your personal information and email safe, you can protect your accounts with two-step authentication. Two-step authentication is an extra layer of security to ensure that you’re the only person who can access your account. Companies such as Google, Facebook, and Dropbox give you this option. For these accounts, when you want to sign into a new device for the first time, you’ll have to provide two pieces of information — your password and the six-digit verification code sent to your phone.
To set up two-step authentication on your Google account, read Protect Your Information — What Is a Google Verification Code?
Create secure passwords
Creating secure passwords for each of your devices and online applications is an easy way to protect yourself from hackers. Avoid using the same password, and don’t use passwords that are easy to guess, such as your birthday or children’s names. Create passwords that contain uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols and are at least eight characters long.
Avoid using public Wi-Fi networks
There are two kinds of public Wi-Fi networks: secured and unsecured. An unsecured network can be connected to anything within range and without any security feature. A secure network may require a user to agree to legal terms, pay a fee or store purchase, register an account, or type in a password. Regardless of the connection type, you should be wary of checking your bank accounts or making purchases with a credit card while using public Wi-Fi.
Be cautious with “save my information for later”
While it’s convenient to store personal banking or credit card information to make it easier for you to buy a product or pay a bill in the future, your personal information and accounts are more readily available to hackers. Be cautious when choosing to save your information to a website or online application.
Disable connections when you aren’t using them
Hackers can use certain features on your phone to use your network or access your devices without your knowledge. Turn these features off when you aren’t using them if your computer uses Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to connect to the internet or other devices.
While you can take these steps on your own to avoid being vulnerable to hackers, Continental Title Company cares about your safety, too. Continental Title uses CertiflD to verify your identity before we share wiring information with each other. With these five tips and using Continental Title Company, you can ensure your transactions are as safe as possible!