First Bank and Trust Company of Murphysboro has security measures to protect your account information, but we can’t be effective without your help and cooperation. Many account hijacking attempts come as a result of hacking into individual user accounts, and from there electronically breaking into the bank using your information and security codes.

Here are a few precautions that can help you protect your personal information:

• Use strong passwords: Reduce risk of weak personal security and compromised banking by using a random combination of letters and numbers. Avoid using easily guessed passwords such as birthdays or home addresses.
• Use anti-virus/malware protection: Make sure the anti-virus/malware software on your computer is up-to-date and scans your email as it is received.
• Email safety: Be wary of sending any sensitive information such as account numbers or other personal information through email. Only download from reputable sources, such as the bank’s website.
• Log out: Always log out at the end of your online banking session.
• Avoid phishing/social engineering scams: Fraudsters are always trying to access your personal information using various methods. Don’t respond to any unusual email requests for personal information. If you are unsure if an email is legitimate, call the bank.
• Account monitoring: Check your accounts regularly and let the bank know immediately if something does not seem right. Those who monitor their accounts online often detect fraud earlier than those who rely solely on paper statements.
• Avoid free Wi-Fi/public internet: Public Wi-Fi and hotspots are very convenient, but not entirely secure. Avoid performing banking transactions on a public network or hotspot. If you need to access your account, disable the Wi-Fi and switch to your mobile network.
• Free credit reports: One of your most important tools when protecting yourself against cyber-fraud is your credit report. It lists all of your credit accounts and will be the first place that unusual charges or entirely new accounts will appear. Federal law permits consumers to obtain a free report annually from each of the three major credit bureau. Experts recommend that you to obtain your free report from a different credit bureau every four months so you can monitor your accounts all year long. To obtain your free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call 877-322-8228.

The best line of defense is understanding how fraudsters access your personal information: 

• Phishing/Social Engineering: Criminals will attempt to steal your personal information by sending fraudulent emails or texts to your smartphone. Messages are often very convincing and lure you to an unsafe website that asks you to provide or verify personal information and financial details such as account numbers and social security numbers. Remember: the bank will never send emails asking for your personal information.
• Card Skimming: Criminals try to gain your personal information by tampering with ATM machines by setting up a device that can capture magnetic stripe and keypad information, such as your PIN and account number. Only use ATMs you know and trust and examine the machine closely for signs of tampering.
• Spyware: Criminal use software that a victim unknowingly loads on a personal computer by opening an email or clicking a suspicious link. Once installed on your computer, spyware collects your personal information. Using up-to-date anti-virus software is the best way to defend yourself.

Password Security

Password security has become an important question as more and more of us use online accounts and mobile accounts to access financial information. There are some simple things each of us can do to help protect ourselves online with one of the biggest being the use of “strong” passwords. The keys to a password’s strength are length and complexity. An ideal password has letters, punctuation, symbols and numbers and you should try to use as many of these as the website’s requirements allow. Passwords should be changed frequently, or at least every 90-days. Do not share your login information with any other individual and avoid using the automatic login features that save your username and password. Following are some other tips:

• Avoid creating a password using any personal, financial or identifying information including your birthday, driver’s license number, passport number, account number or social security number.
• Avoid using a dictionary word or even a word spelled backwards.
• Avoid using sequences or repeated characters or adjacent letters on your keyboard such as 1234567 or qwerty.
• Do add complexity to your passwords by mixing upper and lower case letters.
• Do add numbers or symbols to your password.
• Do make your password more difficult to guess by making it more random. For example:
  • Take a sentence and use the first letter of each word adding upper and lower case letters such as DmYpMdTgBmImR!
  • Adding symbols to the end adds to the complexity.

Identity Theft