Recently we have been notified of a serious data breach within Optus whereby cyber-criminals have been able to obtain personal and sensitive data of customers. This information includes drivers licence passports, email addresses, dates of birth etc. With this information, anybody can assume one’s identity quickly in order to perform a serious crime or scam. We can expect that the number of scams will be increasing as a result of this hack. For example, a fake email from Optus requiring your payment details to be updated. A click on the email will send you to a website that looks exactly like Optus but is a fake website.
What can you do to protect yourself from possible scammers or hackers?
The following are a number of ways that you can protect yourself.
- Check the sender’s email address in emails that you have received. Does the email address look genuine?. Get into the habit of hovering the mouse over the actual sender’s email address to check the sender’s address. While you may see that the sender is “Optus”, if you hover over the sender, a scam email will show an obscure email address or one that is similar but not quite the same. Also ensure that you do not open any attachments received with these emails as they will contain a virus or software that may provide hackers with details from your computer.
- Purchase some software that can assist with security and firewalls. This won’t provide 100% guarantee of full protection, but it may assist.
- Be vigilant when providing private information over the phone. As a good practice do not provide any information to people who call you, but rather get their contact details and call them back later. If they do not answer the phone stating the company name you are dealing with, hang up and do not provide any personal information unless you are 100% certain that the person you are speaking with is a representative of the stated organisation.
- Hackers are continually setting up fake websites which look like ones that you would normally log into. Eg banks. Make sure you check the website address is correct before logging in. If a hacker can obtain your log in details from the fake website, they can then log into your actual account and gain access to your bank account details and potentially transact on your account. Currently most bank websites allow for two factor authentication (2FA). If you can, use this facility as another level of protection so that hackers cannot get access to your bank account details.
- Continually check your bank accounts for any unusual activity. If you are unsure of transactions being withdrawn from your bank account, contact the bank immediately.
- Consider reducing your credit card limit to reduce the amount that hackers can access.
- Emails can be intercepted by hackers. So, if you provide your bank account details to a customer or contact to pay you for services performed, phone them first to let them know you’ll be sending an email. Likewise, if you receive an email from a supplier and they have provided new bank account details in an email, phone them to make sure that the new account details are correct.
- Change your email and bank account passwords regularly. Do not save any passwords on your computer.
- Ensure that all your staff and family members remain vigilant to possible hackers and suspicious emails. Make it a practice that staff are aware of any suspicious emails received so that they are aware of the threats.
What happens if you have been hacked?
Australian Cyber Security Centre provide the steps to take if you feel that you have been hacked and how you can ensure that you can secure your personal identity. The website also shows that in the event of having your identity stolen, you can apply for a Commonwealth Victims Certificate which will help to re-establish your credentials with government or financial institutions. This can be found on the following link.
Optus notifies customers of cyberattack compromising customer information | Cyber.gov.au
You may be able to contact the state government department that has issued your driver’s licence to obtain a new drivers licence number, to help protect your identity. VicRoads has more information on this here:
Information regarding Optus breach : VicRoads
