The Sidney Business Improvement Area (BIA) warns people to delete suspicious emails from its president after a breach Tuesday.
Susan Simosko, Sidney BIA president, was the victim of a cyber-security breach that compromised her e-mail account and requests were sent out to her entire contact database.
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The Government of Canada’s Get Cyber Safe initiative has the following recommendations :
- Never use your name, birthday, driver’s license or passport number.
- Commit your passwords to memory and don’t store them on your computer or in your mobile phone.
- If a website or browser asks to keep you signed in, unclick that option and take the time to re-enter your password each time.
- Clear your browsing history or cache after online banking and shopping.
- If you get an email that includes a password you’ve just set up, delete it.
- Make sure sites are secure before you enter your password.
- Avoid using a single dictionary word.
- Stay away from things like words spelled backwards, misspelled words, and abbreviations that are easy to figure out.
- Don’t repeat numbers (5555) and letters (bbbb), include simple sequences (abcdefg or 56789) or use letters that appear in a row on your keyboard (qwerty).
- Make sure that you change your smartphone’s original default password.
- Change your passwords after implementing a fix or following being compromised.
- Use different passwords for different online accounts, especially those dealing with sensitive or financial information (banking online).
The RCMP have been notified of the situation.
For more information on cybersecurity, recognizing online scams, and the risks of e-mail viruses I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the Government’s Online Safety website.
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