Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is the start of Stay Smart Online Week. So why is this important? It is important because last year the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission received 15,000 reports of phishing scams for the 12 months of 2015. It is concerning, because this year the ACCC has already received more than 18,000, including more than 600 here in the ACT.

Thankfully, there are a few simple things that we can all do to improve our cybersecurity and our cybersafety and to empower ourselves online. We can start by using complex passwords that combine upper-case and lower-case letters, numerals and special characters. Remember: your password might look strange, but if you cannot pronounce it they cannot guess it. We also need to be careful about how much personal information we share on social media sites. Many websites help verify your identity through personal security questions such as the name of a school that you attended, but we need to be careful about how much personal information we put into those sites.

Australians have lost $55 million to online scams this year. It is money that will not go to mortgages, school uniforms, groceries or car repayments. So I encourage Canberrans and Canberra small business to get online to staysmartonline.gov.au and to learn how to protect themselves. (Time expired)