What precautions can I take to keep my data safe from online fingerprint fraud?

• Keep your system updates up to date and use a virus scanner.
• Never download and/or install illegal software. This is a very common source of malware infection.
• When downloading and/or installing legal software, always check that the website is genuine.
• Use a unique password for each account. Even now, 30 to 40% of people in the Netherlands use the same password for several accounts. So a cybercriminal only has to hack one account to gain access to all the others. This is what makes it so important to have a unique password for each account.
• Use strong passwords, or passphrases. Make sure your passwords contain upper case and lower case letters, numerals, and special characters. Make the password as long as possible, or use a passphrase: a sentence you can easily remember, where the password is made up of the first letter of each word.
• Use a digital password manager. One way to remember all these different passwords is to save them in a digital password safe, known as a password manager. The advantage of this is that you only have to remember the password of the password manager itself.
• Use 2-step verification. An increasing number of accounts allow you to set up 2-step verification. When logging in, you not only use a password, but also confirm your identity in some other way, for example via an app or a fingerprint scanner on your phone. In that case a cybercriminal can’t gain access with just a password. Moreover, you are notified if anyone tries to log in with your name. You can then immediately take precautionary measures, like changing your password.