Make cyber security a daily habit this month

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month, a great time to check your personal and business digital defences.

Just like locking your front door, cyber security should be part of the daily routine for your business and employees. Here are some tips your business can put in place to stay safe online.

To protect your employees’ personal information, chat to them about:

• Setting up their myID – this is their digital armour when accessing ATO online services through myGov. Set it up to the highest identity strength, the higher the strength the more protection.
• Download the ATO app – this manages their tax and super easily while receiving real-time alerts when changes are made to their account. If something doesn’t look right, they can lock their account instantly and follow the prompts to secure it.

To help protect your business, adopt a cyber safe culture with these simple habits:

• Keep your devices updated – install software updates regularly to stay protected against the latest threats.
• Use strong, unique passphrases – combine four or more random words like ‘ocean lamp tiger cloud’ and add special characters or numbers for extra strength (avoid quotes, personal details or predictable phrases).
• Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) – this adds an extra layer of security to your accounts by requiring two or more forms of ID (like passphrases and biometrics).

Bonus tip: To implement practical cyber safety measures in your business, check out ATO’s new Cybersecurity module in our online learning site Essentials to strengthen your small business.

Find more tips on how to make cyber security an everyday habit and stay safe online.

Source: ATO