Online security
For every convenience the internet offers, there's a criminal looking for ways to use it to make money. A few simple steps can help you protect your identity, personal details and money.
Protecting your identity
Your identity is an extremely valuable asset—you need to protect it carefully.
If a criminal discovers your personal details they might try to:
- access your bank accounts
- take out loans and credit cards in your name
- remortgage your house.
Never send your personal or bank details by email or text. Only enter this information on secure websites owned by organisations you know and trust.
Visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner website for more information about identity fraud.
Social media
Social media is a very popular tool for connecting with others and sharing updates and opinions. However, you must be careful when using social media as criminals could take advantage of you.
They might try to:
- download spyware onto your computer
- steal your identity and personal details
- impersonate you to target your friends
- hack your account.
To protect yourself you should:
- consider making your account private
- think carefully before sharing personal information with online friends and on public posts
- check your privacy settings regularly, as app and software functionality and terms and conditions often automatically change with updates
- visit the help section of the social media company's website or app to find out how to protect your information
- consider enabling two-factor authentication
- use strong passwords—avoid using personally identifiable information, such as your name, birthday, address, etc
- avoid authorising third-party apps to connect with your social media account.
Visit the eSafety Commissioner website to find out how to protect your personal information and report harmful content on common social media, games, apps and sites.
Shopping online
Shopping online can be convenient and cost-effective, but you should be extremely careful when sharing personal and credit card details online.
To stay safe when shopping online you should:
- use secure devices
- protect your payment information and accounts
- use trusted sellers
- be aware of the warning signs of scams
- use secure payment methods
- report suspicious contact to Scamwatch
- watch out for fake delivery scams.
Visit the Australian Cyber Security Centre website to find security tips to make sure your online shopping experience is secure.
Dealing with hoax emails and texts
Criminals may use hoax emails (called 'phishing') and texts ('smishing') to get to your personal or bank details.
Fake emails and texts often look like they've come from a legitimate source, such as:
- a bank or financial institution
- an internet or other service provider
- an online retailer
- a trusted business
- a university
- a government agency.
Legitimate organisations will never email or text you asking for your passwords or financial details, for any reason.
Links in emails and texts aren't always what they seem—they can lead to fake websites that download viruses or unsafe software, such as spyware, onto your computer to discover your personal details.
If you're suspicious of a link in an email or text, don't click on it—visit the company's official website to check the information is valid, or phone the company using their official communication channels.
To check where a link will really take you, hover your mouse icon over the link—the real address should appear in the bottom left corner of your screen.
Visit the Australian Cyber Security Centre website to learn how to protect yourself from malicious emails, and the Scamwatch website to report an email or text scam.
More information
- Visit the eSafety Commissioner website to discover how they can help you stay safe online.
- Visit the Scamwatch website to learn how to:
- Report a cybercrime, incident or vulnerability on the Australian Cyber Security Centre website.
- Read the Little book of scams published by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.