- by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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I know a business that had their website hacked, their
entire customer database hijacked, and thousands of customer
credit card numbers stolen at the same time.

In the following months, the hackers did their best to steal
as much as they could from this business through a number of
"phishing" scams and direct email campaigns to their
customers posing as the business.

After many months of heartache, expense, and lost sleep,
this company was able to clean up the mess and the hackers
moved on to greener pastures.

What’s the lesson for all of us?

Whether you operate a multi-million dollar e-commerce
empire, or generate part-time income with a small eBay or
ebook enterprise, the following tips will help you fraud-
proof your online business before it’s too late!

~ Protect Your Passwords ~
Never share passwords for sensitive applications such as web
hosting, email, PayPal, bank accounts or anything else with
anyone.

If you must share hosting passwords with web designers or
programmers, change the password immediately after they
complete work.

Change all your sensitive passwords on a monthly basis.

~ Use Proven Service Providers ~
Custom programming is great until someone figures out how to
hack an unproven system.

Using credit card and shopping cart providers like
ClickBank, 1ShoppingCart, Authorize.net, and PayPal greatly
reduce the chances that your sensitive data will get hacked
and stolen online.

~ Shred Everything ~
A good, cross-cut shredder rates just about the best
investment you can make in online security.

Before throwing anything away, shred it!

The shredding list includes bank statements, check stubs,
lists of names and emails, printed emails, and anything else
that can lead someone back to you, a customer, an account,
or where you go or what you do online.

~ Fight The "Clone Wars" ~
Keep an eye out for illegal copies of your website posing as
you or your business.

If you find someone posing as you online, the easiest way to
shut them down is a direct frontal assault.

Contact their hosting company, their credit card processor,
and their domain name registrar about the illegal activity.

Threaten to sue them (the provider) if the illegal activity
does not cease immediately.

~ Troll eBay ~
Regularly check eBay for people selling bootleg copies of
your products.

Set up automated searches to email you any time a listing
gets placed with your name, product name or any reference
similar to your product.

Sign up with eBay’s Vero program to get the offenders shut
down immediately with a simple email from you.

~ What Mom Always Told You… ~
"Never talk to strangers!"

That means NEVER give ANY information to anyone via phone or
email, especially if they call you! Oh, guess what?

Your bank, hosting provider, email service, ISP, and PayPal
already know your username and PIN#… they don’t need to
call or email you to ask you to confirm it.

~ Additional Tips ~
Never leave your physical mail (incoming or outgoing) in
your mailbox overnight.

Don’t share any sensitive information with anyone who
doesn’t need to know it.

Be careful of any shareware you download and use because it
can contain spyware and even viruses intended to steal
critical information.

Use common sense and never think you’re invulnerable to an
attack that could derail your business with one little
misstep.

—
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs…

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