Your personal information is a precious commodity and should be treated as such. It should be guarded like treasure and only shared with those you trust. Protecting your information can be the best way to defend yourself against identity theft.

Defend your Social Security number

Don’t carry your Social Security card around with you or write your Social Security number on checks. Don’t give your Social Security number to everyone who asks for it. Of course sometimes it is necessary—for employment, filing taxes, opening a bank account—these are all legitimate reasons. If someone asks for your Social Security number and you are not absolutely sure that the person asking absolutely needs your social ask them:

• Why do you need my Social Security number?
• How will my Social Security number be used?
• How do you protect my Social Security number from being stolen?
• Can I provide some other form of personally identifying information like a password?
• What will happen if I don’t give you my Social Security number?

If they can’t give you good answers for these questions, you will want to think twice about giving out your number.

Shred, shred, shred

It’s a good idea to shred everything. No exaggeration. If it has your name on it, through the shredder it goes. The lovely mailing labels that you get from charitable organizations: shredded. The ‘convenience’ checks that your credit card company sends you: shredded.

If you don’t feel up to being shred-crazy, there are still some key things that should always be shredded before going in the trash. Anything with your signature, medical information, account numbers, passwords, and social security number should be shredded once you no longer need the document. If you need to keep the document for some reason, keep it under lock and key in a secure place in your home.

To reduce the amount that you need to shred, consider opting out of prescreened credit card offers that arrive by mail. You have the option to opt out for five years or permanently.

Visit www.optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-567-8688. Remember that this will cut down on the mail you receive, but it also means that you will miss out on credit card offers (if you are interested in that sort of thing.)

Defend your Mail

Unless you have a lock on your mailbox (which by the way, you can do), your best bet is to always deposit your outgoing mail in those big blue post office boxes or better yet at your local post office. It’s safest to hand your mail directly to a USPS employee.

Defend Online

Place passwords on your credit card, bank, and phone accounts. Avoid using easily available information like your mother’s maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits of your Social Security number, your phone number, a series of consecutive numbers, or a single word that would appear in a dictionary.

Combinations of letters, numbers, and special characters make the strongest passwords.

Using pass phrases can also work well when it comes to protecting your financial information (and be easier to remember then a random series of numbers and symbols). For example I might use the phrase “I walk by white flowers” and make it into a pass phrase by replacing the vowels with numbers, the ‘I’ in ‘white’ with an exclamation point and capitalizing every fourth letter like this: 1w4LkbyWh!t3fl0W3rs.

Following the relatively simple steps above and a little extra work on your part will keep your private information, private. Protecting your information can make all the difference, when it comes to identity theft.

If you think you are the victim of identity theft, here are some important steps to take.

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GreenPath is a non-profit credit counseling organization. GreenPath’s goal is to offer guidance and support to individuals seeking to manage and overcome financial challenges through education, financial counseling and debt management programs. The information provided is for educational purposes only. Consulting with a licensed financial advisor and tax advisor is recommended before making any major financial decisions. GreenPath is not a debt settlement company, credit repair company, credit repair service, nor does GreenPath provide debt consolidation loans. By using this website, you acknowledge and agree that GreenPath is not responsible for any financial decisions you make based on the information provided on this site.