Protecting our online identity

Stay Smart Online Week runs from 7-13 October 2019. This year the focus is on protecting our online identity. In healthcare this means protecting personal information.

With personal information cyber criminals can steal our identity and then through impersonation use our credit cards, or set up and access accounts, which can result in significant financial and emotional losses.

To be more informed about cyber crime and the implications of identity theft watch this short Stay Smart Online video.

Stay Smart Online has provided guidance on how to minimise the risk of identity theft by adopting good security practices including:

• Reviewing our online privacy settings
• Knowing how to spot a phishing scam
• Creating strong unique passwords across our accounts and devices
• Turning-on multi-factor authentication
• Using the security controls on our devices

We all have a role to play in protecting ourselves, our families, businesses and communities from cybercrime. This Stay Smart Online Week take a few simple steps to protect health information and to lock down your online security.

Learn more about developing good security behaviours (PDF, 540.27 KB) and read our information security guide for small healthcare businesses (PDF, 880.43 KB). Additional healthcare security guidance resources are available from our Cyber Security Centre.

Healthcare organisations are reminded to ensure they are meeting their obligation to take reasonable steps to protect personal information – guidance is available on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s website.

If you have been the victim of identity theft, contact IDCARE on 1300 432 273. IDCARE can guide you through the steps to reclaim your identity.

You can report a scam to the ACCC via Scamwatch or report a cyber incident via the Government’s ReportCyber webpage.