Security

As a valued member of USU Charter Credit Union, the security of your personal information, accounts, and identity is important to us.

It is very important to be careful when doing business online. You should always be cautious to protect your identity. Please use the following information to help you protect yourself, your personal information and your computer when you are online.

Phishing & Spoofing

The most common type of online fraud includes email messages sent to you for the purpose of stealing personal and financial information. This practice is known as "phishing" or "spoofing". These emails appear to be from legitimate sources you use and trust. They try to entice you to provide different types of personal and confidential information including your online ID's, passwords, PIN numbers, Social Security number and bank account numbers. This is done by asking you to reply directly to the email, or by asking you to link to a phony Web site that appears legitimate.

How to protect myself: Be suspicious of email messages that try to obtain your personal information. USU Charter Credit Union will NEVER send you an email asking you to provide personal information.

• Never respond to an email asking for personal information.
• Always make certain the correct site address is listed in the address line of your Internet browser
• Check for the SSL secure connection symbol: a locked padlock. When you log in to Web Teller, a secure session will be established between your browser and USU Charter Credit Union.
• Do not use public access computers to access credit union accounts.

There are a number of steps that you should take to protect your computer. We recommend that you consider the following:

Use a personal firewall
A firewall is an extra level of protection for your home or work network. This barrier can prevent unauthorized people from gaining access to your computer. Your operating system may already provide this service. If you do not currently have a firewall, we recommend that you obtain this valuable software to help protect yourself.

Use the most current operating system & Web Browser
Security weaknesses or bugs are often found in browsers and operating systems. When this occurs, service packs are issued by the software company to make sure these issues are fixed as quickly as possible. You should make regular visits your software vendor’s web site (or request an alert, if they are available), and apply any new security patches as soon as possible.

Use up-to-date virus protection software
Anti-virus software provides protection against viruses that compromise your computer's security. Once installed, make certain to take advantage of the continuous updates provided by the software manufacturer to combat the latest virus threats.

Install Anti Spyware software
"Spyware" and "Adware" can track your browsing activity and send it to a 3rd Party. This information can include personal Internet usage as well as confidential information such as passwords. In order to protect yourself, avoid downloading software from unknown sources. Never accept an invitation to download software from a source that you do not know and trust.

There are publicly available programs which scan your PC and help remove any existing Spyware on your PC. Like Anti Virus Programs, update and scan your computer for Spyware and Adware often.

You may also wish to check if firewall, virus, and anti-spyware software is available from your Internet service provider.