How to Protect Yourself Online
Cybercrime is defined as the use of a computer, digital device or online network to commit crimes such as fraud, online image abuse, identity theft, or threats and intimidation.
In today’s highly digitally-driven world, cybercrime is becoming more and more prevalent, with the latest Annual Cyber Threat Report 2021-22 by the Australian Cyber Security Centre recording 76,000 cybercrime reports, which is an increase of 13% from the previous year. In the past few months alone, many Australians have fallen victim to cybercrime, having their personal information including their name, date of birth, phone numbers and more stolen from the databases of large companies like Optus, Medibank, The Good Guys and many more targeted by hackers.
Types of Cybercrime in Australia
There are many different types of cybercrime, including identity theft, email compromise, internet fraud, ransomware attacks, online shopping fraud, online romance fraud, and cyber abuse.
Advice from the ACCC in 2019 covered just how convincing scammers were becoming even back then, and it was going well beyond just clicking on suspicious-looking emails.
Scammers are professional businesses dedicated to ripping us off. They have call centres with convincing scripts, staff training programs, and corporate performance indicators their ‘employees’ need to meet.
Avoiding Cybercrime
As online scammers continue to get more and more sophisticated in their means, we need to continue to be vigilant. Some things to keep an eye out for:
- Inspect incoming emails closely. If you receive an email from a company that you have an account with, check it closely. Review the email address that the email has come from, for example, if the email has come from us (com.au) the email address should end with @laptopplus.com.au, check the spelling and grammar throughout, look for anything that seems a bit ‘off’.
- Avoid clicking on buttons or hyperlinks in emails, particularly if a button or link in an email is going to direct you to login to your account. STOP! You could be about to enter your logins in a fake website, thereby essentially handing over account access to hackers. Instead, go directly to Google, search for the company website, and login that way.
- Be wary of incoming calls. If your bank or other financial institution calls you and wants to verify account details over the phone, STOP! Never confirm any details on an incoming call. Tell the caller that you will hang up and call the company directly. Go to the company’s website directly, get the phone number for the company in question, and phone them that way. Then you can be sure you’re definitely talking to the right people!
- Don’t give codes to friends over social media. If a friend contacts you via social media private message and tells you that they’re having difficulty accessing their accounts, and need your help to send them a code. STOP! This is a common way for hackers to gain access to your account. If this happens, consider texting or calling your friend direct to check on them and ensure that their account hasn’t been compromised.
- Steer clear of unknown contacts on messaging apps like WhatsApp and Viber. Scammers are now contacting victims via WhatsApp message and impersonating their family members. After claiming that their phone has been lost or broken (hence the new phone number), they request money from the victim.
Protecting yourself from Cybercrime
With so much cybercrime out there, and some really dedicated scammers – what measures can we put in place to protect ourselves?
Along with maintaining vigilance over the above points, we would recommend:
- Set up two-factor authentication on every account possible, particularly email, social media, bookkeeping software and with your financial institutions.
- Use different and complex passwords for all of your accounts. We know, it can get a little overwhelming remembering them all but the consequences of not doing this are far worse to think about.
- Be careful using public wi-fi networks as these are often insecure.
- If you run a business and employ staff, ensure they receive cybersecurity training.
- Have anti-virus software on your computer or laptop.
- Keep all software on your devices updated to help minimise vulnerabilities that hackers will seek out.
- Check that the websites you use and enter data into are secure by looking for a HTTPS in the address bar, and not just a HTTP.
- Have privacy settings on high for your social media accounts to minimise the personal data that strangers can access.
- Backup your data regularly to the cloud or external hard drive in case your device is compromised.
- Regularly check ACCC SCAMwatch to stay up to date on current scams.
