Security Awareness
David Kovarik, Director
NUIT Information & Systems
Security/Compliance
Security Awareness: Keeping Your Personal Financial Information Secure
March 2007
Springtime will soon be upon us, potentially marred only by the Chicago Cubs losing their opener and the looming April 15 filing deadline for income taxes. There’s not much you can do about the Cubs — or the filing deadline for that matter — but keeping your personal financial data private and secure is under your direct control.
Preparing your own return
Your personal financial records can be the target of identity thieves who will go to great lengths to obtain your information. Dumpster diving, that is retrieving paperwork from the trash, continues to be a fairly effective and lucrative practice. Your tax forms, work papers, billing statements, and receipts contain your social security number, personal financial information, and credit card numbers.
For the data you retain electronically, do you use encryption to protect it? Are you disposing of previous years’ tax returns with a shredder? How about that old PC you used to prepare earlier tax returns, the one with the personal financial software that holds your personal data from years past? Did you donate it to a local charity and take the deduction? Did you wipe out the disk so that your personal financial can’t be retrieved? If not, you could be the person whose name appears in the news as having their personal data exposed.
You can also avoid possible malware by getting your personal financial software from a reputable source, and consider electronic filing for faster processing and refunds. The Internal Revenue Service offers advice on electronic filing on their Web site. You should also take caution to not automatically reply to e-mail invitations to prepare or file your tax return. Instead, always verify that the Web site is legitimate and manually key the URL into the address bar of your browser.
Using a tax preparer
If you’ve decided that income tax preparation is too troublesome and you’re looking to delegate the task, be sure to find someone reputable and trustworthy. Dispensers of financial advice such as a local bank can be a good source of referral but it is always a good practice to “trust but verify”.
During the preparation process, you will make available much of your personal financial information, including social security numbers and date of birth, so asking for references is appropriate. Also, ask your tax preparer to return all copies of documents to you. Be sure that you keep them in a safe place, and shred old tax returns when they’re no longer needed.
As always, You’re the Key to keeping your financial data secure!
