October is Cyber Security Awareness month

The Optus breach – arguably the biggest hack in the nation’s history, is on an extraordinary scale, impacting an estimated 10 million people. Understandably, many Optus customers would be deeply concerned about whether their private information has ended up on the black market.

Unfortunately, in our digital world, hacking is commonplace. A report by Google found one in three Australians have had their passwords hacked or compromised.  This gels with Institute of Criminology figures that show nearly 6.7 million Australian adults have been victims of cyber-crime.

We know that cyber-crooks often take advantage of current events to fleece vulnerable victims. We’ve seen this through flood-related insurance scams and COVID-based scams. What’s especially creepy is that the ACSC says hackers actively trawl social networking sites looking for their next victims.

As part of Cyber Security Awareness month, the ACSC has developed a new online tool to help people who think they may have been targeted by cyber-crims. The ‘Have you been hacked?’ tool is available at cyber.gov.au. It walks users through a series of scenarios to assess if they’ve been hacked, and offers suggestions on how to remedy the situation.

This is an area where prevention is worth a tonne of cure. The ACSC suggests three key steps we can all take to help protect ourselves and our data:

1. Update devices regularly – just like a burglar trying to break into your home, cyber-thieves look for the easiest way in. Regularly updating software plugs the gaps.
2. Protect your accounts with multi-factor authentication – this is where you need to provide two forms of ID to access an account. It commonly means entering a PIN and a security number sent via SMS to your phone. Hackers might manage to steal one form of identity such as your PIN, but they still need to get hold of the other piece of ID to access your account.
3. Back-up data regularly – we store a lot of information on our devices, and it can be costly or even impossible to replace if it’s lost through hacking or damage to your device.

None of us can control the IT security systems of the companies and service providers we deal with. But we can take action with our own devices, and as we’ve seen recently, none of us can assume we won’t fail prey to hackers.

InvestSMART investors can turn on two factor authentication for their account via the My Account section. To learn more about 2FA and InvestSMART PMA security click here.

Paul Clitheroe is Chairman of InvestSMART, Chair of the Ecstra Foundation and chief commentator for Money Magazine.