Don’t Fall Victim to Identity Theft This Tax Season

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DigitalPersona Gives Tips for Putting Safe Tax Preparation at Your Fingertips

Redwood City, CA—03-24-2009—DigitalPersona, Inc., the leader in fingerprint identity protection technology, is helping people be safer as they prepare and file their taxes online during the 2009 tax season. Consumers are flocking to tax preparation Web sites. Unfortunately, so are cyber thieves who target the social security numbers, names of bank accounts and other valuable information being transmitted online. In response to these potential threats, DigitalPersona is providing consumers with tips and tools for securing access to online tax accounts, financial records, personal files and other sensitive information.

“The recession has led to an unprecedented increase in identity theft and phishing activity, making this tax season a time when we all need to take extra care of our online identities,” said Jim Fulton, vice president of marketing at DigitalPersona. “Our complete financial lives are handed over to Web-based tax preparation sites, which do take strong measures to keep information secure. But, it is up to each of us to keep this confidential data safe on our own PCs and to protect our online tax accounts against hackers.”

DigitalPersona is offering consumers the following tips for staying safe online this tax season:

• Use strong, unique passwords for all your online accounts. Having a single password for multiple sites increases your risk of identity theft. Not sure how secure your passwords are? At-a-glance password rating systems will let you know in moments whether you are truly protected.
• Safely keep track of passwords, especially those that aren’t used very often. Don’t write them down on “sticky notes” or leave them in an unprotected file on your computer. Today’s cyber thieves specifically search files and the places where browsers store “remembered” passwords.
• Ensure that only you can use your passwords by tying them to your fingerprint. Fingerprint readers are already available on over 30 percent of laptops and can be easily added to any PC.
• Protect against phishing attacks hidden behind false tax preparation or bank Web pages. Look for “hacker proof” or “secured” symbols on the Web site before logging on.
• Encrypt important personal files, such as tax returns or other sensitive documents, to safeguard against hacking attempts.
• Keep all anti-virus, malware, and other computer security products up to date to remain on top of the latest Trojan, ”keyloggers” and other threats.
• Secure yourself, not just your PC. Seek out software that specifically protects you when your personal identity information is handed to authorized Web sites.

DigitalPersona encourages consumers to take these precautionary steps and to use the latest in online identity protection solutions. With the DigitalPersona® Personal Identity Protection Suite and U.are.U® 4500 fingerprint reader; consumers can file their taxes online with more peace of mind. When combined with the DigitalPersona File Protection, users can also store confidential files such as tax documents and account statements in an encrypted form on their computers.

For more information on DigitalPersona, the DigitalPersona Personal Identity Protection Suite, the U.are.U 4500 fingerprint reader or File Protection, visitwww.digitalpersona.com.

About DigitalPersona

DigitalPersona, Inc. is the leading provider of fingerprint identity solutions for consumers, enterprises and custom application developers. The company offers software and hardware that protects people and businesses by enabling them to control their digital identities. For end users, DigitalPersona provides strong identity protection that’s uniquely easy to use; the company’s business solutions help organizations address growing security, compliance and loss prevention demands. DigitalPersona’s award-winning technology has been used worldwide by over 95 million people, and its solutions are offered by market-leading manufacturers such as Dell, HP, IBM and NCR. For more information contact DigitalPersona, Inc. at +1 650.474.4000, or visitwww.digitalpersona.com.   

© 2009 DigitalPersona, Inc. All rights reserved. DigitalPersona and U.are.U are trademarks of DigitalPersona, Inc. registered in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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