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Cyber theft is quickly becoming big news these days, as it becomes more and more prevalent. Internet thieves are capable of stealing your credit card information, personal account information, and banking login information. Then they can go on to enjoy giant spending sprees completely at your expense. Luckily, the chance of having your identity stolen is not quite as high as the newsmakers tend to make it seem. There are only a few steps that you need to take to keep your identity safe when sharing personal information with a website.

Most ecommerce websites already offer at least some form of security, which will make it difficult for any thieves to run off with your information. You should always look for protections like this. If a website does not seem to have any security or protections in place, you simply should not shop there. At all. Period. Here is a list of the best ways to determine whether or not a website offers the security that you need in order to protect your identity:

The best and most widely used form of security against cyber thieves is known as SSL or Secure Sockets Layer technology. SSL is capable of scrambling your personal information like your credit card and banking information so that computer hackers cannot steal it while it is enroute. There are several different ways that you can tell whether or not a website is secure using SSL or Secure Sockets Layer technology.

All website addresses should begin with https://, while normal website addresses show up as http:// instead. The addition of the “s” in https:// stands for ‘secured’. Another great indicator of a website that is secured is the icon of a closed padlock, or of an unbroken key which would be located near the bottom of the screen. These icons may not necessarily pop up until they are needed, but on websites where the security is necessary you will definitely see them. Some websites that are fraudulent may try to imitate this same feature, so be aware that you can click on the icon to see the security details for the website in question.

Checking for security features like these will take you less than a minute overall, but they are the most important precaution that you can take when it comes to fighting thieves on the Internet. If you want to keep your money and identity safe online, follow our guidelines carefully!