This week is Cyber Security Awareness Week whereby the Federal Govt is trying to raise awareness to the general public about cyber security risks and what they can do to alleviate becoming embroiled in cyber scams or malware.
With that in mind I invited Peter Price CEO of Crime Stoppers on 2GB, as well as speaking to Lisa on the Today Show about the risks involved and what the government hopes to achieve this week by the initiative. Peter believes that the most important thing you have to protect is your identity, especially your tax number because this is the one thing that cyber crims love to get hold of so they can get involved in your finances.
Peter gave some sound advice (as did I) about how to protect yourselves online. Although much of this advice has been around for a while, people are still taking unnecessary risks and these are pretty easy to do.
- First of all change your passwords often. Too many people are using the same passwords across the same websites.
- Banks will never send you an email asking you to click on a link to verify your password.
- Use a well known online payment system such as PayPal
I also spoke with Craig Middleton from Telstra about the amount of data that people are going through on their usage in quick-smart time. There can be varying reasons for this, so Craig gave us his:
- Check your usage on the BigPond usage meter online.
- Scan for a virus – you might have a virus.
- Check your plan and make sure it is up to speed
- Make sure your security is turned on if you have wifi
- Use a free software package like netmeter will help you track usage