8 Tips to Make Online and Mobile Banking Safer

New technology makes electronic banking and shopping convenient, but also exposes us to cybersecurity threats. Computers, tablets, smartphones, as well as credit and debit cards can be targets for criminals who use complex tactics to capture your personal information.

You can shop and bank online more safely by following these tips from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC):

• Keep your PIN confidential. Don’t disclose it to anyone else, even your family, and don’t write it on the card or on anything in your wallet.

• Beware of “shoulder surfing”—someone who watches you enter your PIN—when using your debit or credit card at an automated banking machine or a merchant’s terminal.

• If you think someone knows your PIN, change it immediately and contact your financial institution.

• For online banking, choose secure passwords that combine numbers, letters and special characters. Do not use passwords that can be guessed or found out easily—like your name, pet’s, parents’ or children’s names, phone number, date of birth, social insurance number or address. Do not use the same password for multiple accounts, and change your passwords regularly.

• When shopping online, do not let a computer or other electronic device remember your password.

• For online banking, check for the lock icon in the URL bar and the “https” address to be sure you have a secure connection. Also, use secure, private networks—public WiFi networks are often more open to hacking and surveillance than your home network.

• Before you sign up for a financial aggregation service, which displays all your financial information in one place, check the terms and conditions of your bank accounts to make sure that you aren’t voiding the security guarantees.

Additional tips on secure PINs and online security are available on the FCAC website at itpaystoknow.gc.ca.

If you become a victim of cyber fraud, contact your financial institutions and any companies where your accounts were affected, and file a report with your local police.

www.newscanada.com

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