The US Securities and Exchange Commission has issued
a guide to help investors protect their online
brokerage accounts from unlawful use by identity thieves.

According to the SEC, regulators believe that identity thieves have
been targeting online brokerage accounts. The thieves use software
programs to attack susceptible computers, recording key strokes and
monitoring computer activity. This enables the thieves to obtain
personal information such as usernames and passwords and can result in
investors’ money being transferred, without consent, to outside
accounts.

The guide helps investors to protect themselves online. In
particular, the guide urges investors to install firewalls, use
security software and a security token and ignore emails requesting
confidential information.