5 ways to prevent your debit/credit card from getting hacked

Cybersecurity is imperative, especially at this time when more than half of the transactions by people are carried out online. Hackers are always on the lookout for targets and now, a new report in NordVPN says that using a computer, an average payment card can be hacked in just six seconds.

The global VPN service provider came to this conclusion after analysing four million payment cards from 140 countries and found that 'brute force' is the most common method to hack a payment card.

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NordVPN Chief Technology Officer Marijus Briedis said, "The only way such a huge number of payment cards could appear on the dark web is through brute-forcing. That means that criminals try to guess the card number and CVV." He further said that the first 6-8 digits are the ID number of the card issuer and "that leaves hackers with 7-9 numbers to guess because the 16th digit is a checksum and is used only to determine whether any mistakes were made when entering the number. Using a computer, an attack like this can take only six seconds."

How you can prevent your debit/credit card from getting hacked 

1. Users should review their monthly statements for any suspicious activity 
2. Users should respond actively if they receive a security notification from the bank.
3. Have separate bank account for different purposes. 
4. Keep small amounts of money in the account that you payment cards are connected to. 
5. "Some banks also offer temporary virtual cards you can use if you don’t feel safe while shopping online," Briedis said. 

In September last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had also warned the public against the rise in fraudulent activities.

The tweet issued by the RBI said, "RBI cautions against frauds in the name of KYC updation."

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In a separate statement, RBI also said, "The usual modus operandi in such cases include receipt of unsolicited communication, such as calls, SMSs, emails, etc, by customer urging him/her to share certain personal details, account/login details/ card information, PIN, OTP, etc. or install some unauthorised/ unverified application for KYC updation using a link provided in the communication."

"Once customer shares information over call/message/unauthorised application, fraudsters get access to customer’s account and defraud him/her. Members of the public are hereby cautioned not to share account login details, personal information, copies of KYC documents, card information, PIN, password, OTP, etc. with unidentified persons or agencies," added RBI.