While companies and banks do their best to keep customer information secure, any system can only be as strong as its weakest link, and this is often customers themselves. Common mistakes are using easy-to-guess passwords, reusing usernames and passwords across multiple platforms, and falling victim to phishing scams and other efforts to retrieve passwords and other information. Countless consumers have answered official-looking surveys from banks and software companies, giving away account information, user names, passwords, and even social security numbers.
Social media plays an increasing role in today’s society. Facebook has well over 1 billion users worldwide, and is a popular target for hackers. A hacked Facebook account might not be the end of the world, but if the user has re-used the username and password the villain might now have access to everything from e-mail to online banking.
Keeping this in mind as well as recent data breaches at major retailers, keeping consumers safe can seem an intimidating concept. Businesses are responsible for keeping unauthorized users out of the system at the same time as customers respond to phishing e-mails, giving their credentials away. Who is really behind the keyboard, placing an order or logging in to an account? Behavioral monitoring can be a useful tool, helping to safeguard identities and information through analyzing people’s activities.