The recent news of Optus being hacked and thousands of people having their personal information such as credit cards, driver’s licences and medicare information exposed brings to light the seriousness of protecting our data online. While we as users can’t do much about a company being hacked (that responsibility falls on them) we can take steps to protect ourselves from fraud and harm online.
Step 1 – Create Strong Passwords
It’s important to think of something a cybercriminal couldn’t guess or access easily through your online information. So don’t use a birthday or a family member’s name. Instead, choose combinations of upper and lower case letters as well as numbers and symbols like & and @. You can also get help from Password management applications like 1Password to keep it all locked in a vault.
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Step 2 – Avoid that Prince asking for Money
If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. If you receive a random email asking for your bank details in exchange for giant amounts of funds being transferred to your account. Send it to spam or delete it. If you feel the need you can even report it to a Cyber Security Firm. Some emails can look like they are from a legitimate company and one you might even deal with. But check for incorrect use of grammar or spelling and even make sure the email address is the correct one. If you feel remotely…
