Protecting Yourself Against Identify Theft: Especially Important During The Holidays

(CBS4) -- Protecting your identity is always important, especially during the holidays.

According to a recent study from Wallet Hub, Colorado is the second most vulnerable state for identity theft and fraud. The study also says Colorado is third in the country is average loss amount due to online identity theft.

Colorado State University professor Dr. Indrakshi Ray suggest one of the simple ways to avoid being scammed is by periodically changing your passwords to your online accounts.

"We have so many accounts and we are constantly reusing our password and credential, so, if someone gets a hold of your password, high chances are it's the same password that you are using for something else. So, definitely try not to reuse passwords," Ray said.

As the Director of Cyber Security Center at Colorado State University, Dr. Ray also suggests that you sign up for credit monitoring, setting up alerts which will notify you of any changes to your contact information and other suspicious account activity.

"The attack surface has increased dramatically in the last few years and there are so many ways that your accounts can be compromised. So, raising awareness is one of our goals," she said.

Colorado State has plans of putting together a summer camp for high school students to teach them about cyber bullying and cyber-crime.

"Teenagers are actually trying to find their identity and oftentimes inadvertently. they give out a lot of information," Ray said. "At that age we would like to let them know what problems there are out there."

The camp is scheduled to begin in the first week of August.