When you woke up and looked into the bathroom mirror this morning, you probably didn't think to yourself, "Now, there's one great-looking commodity."
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Unfortunately, everything in this world has a price, and your personal information is no exception. In fact, such information is one commodity that's become increasingly valuable to advertisers, marketers, retailers ... and hackers.
Marketers and other legitimate business people want to know considerably more about you to better target sales pitches. However, hackers may have more nefarious intentions -- many see you as little more than an attractive piggy bank that can be looted.
"People need to become conscious that there is danger out there," says Steve Gibson, founder of the Gibson Research Corp. and a noted computer security expert.
Gibson says banks and other businesses increasingly want customers to make transactions online because "that doesn't cost them anything." However, customers need to become better informed about the risks they face if they are to make online transactions securely.
Gibson recently sat down with Bankrate.com and spoke about the online threats to personal data. He offered some easy-to-implement suggestions for avoiding such threats.
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