Securing Your Tablet for Safe Online Banking

Tablets are everywhere. They're portable, battery life is impressive and you can be working in just seconds because they offer instant startup. Certainly the rise of the tablet computer has made a lot of computing tasks easier. But is it a safer computing experience? It can be, if you follow a few simple guidelines:

• Do not store your online banking ID or any passwords on your tablet. It makes it easier to access accounts, but it also makes you vulnerable if your tablet is lost or stolen.
• Clear your tablet's browser cache frequently. You can find a "delete cache" setting, or something similar, in the preferences for your tablet's browser.
• If you have to bank online with your tablets Internet browser, be sure to always log out. This is a crucial safety practice that many people fail to do when they have finished online banking.
• Do not conduct any online financial transaction on an App that your are not completely certain is legitimate.
• Do not open links in Emails that ask you to supply personal or financial information. First Entertainment will never ask you to supply this kind of information with an Email link.
• Do not do your online banking in public. It is also advisable not to do your banking in public areas. If you find that you must conduct such transactions in public, equip your tablet's screen with a privacy screen protector like those made by 3M.
• Do not use public Wi-Fi. Everybody wants free Wi-Fi but it is also open ground for thieves to steal your online banking information. Use secured networks whenever possible.
• Set a passcode for your device. However, do not use the same PIN for your login – always use something different.
• When creating a PIN or passcode always choose something that people will not easily guess like your date of birth. Instead, create something unique and follow these simple rules:
  • It must be at least 8 characters (the longer the better);
  • Combine all caps with small caps;
  • Use alphanumeric characters, and;
  • Include symbols.
• Change your PIN or password every 30 to 60 days.
• Keep your password and PIN confidential and don't share it with anyone.
• Lock your device. Set your device to lock automatically. This should prevent any unwanted prying eyes when you leave the device unattended.
• Never do your banking on jailbroken devices.
• Keep your operating system up to date. It will help to ensure that all patches to vulnerabilities have been addressed.
• Install real-time antivirus and antispyware software. Don't be surprised if there's not a lot of it out there for the iPad. And what you do find will most likely be an App that alerts you to the current list of threats for all computers. But, we still recommend using such a program, just to be safe.