Protect yourself as cyber scams surge

By Corowa Free Press

May 28, 2025

It’s time to protect yourself from cyber scams which are becoming more common.

Victorians lost more than $42 million to cyber scams last year with research showing only one in three Victorians used multi-factor authentication to protect their online accounts.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

The Victorian Government is advising everyone to activate multi-factor authentication on their devices to make it harder for someone to get into your accounts even if they do steal your passwords.

MFA helps to better protect finances and personal data from scammers and cybercriminals.

Research has found 60 per cent of Victorians are still using weak passwords, which a cybercriminal can hack in minutes.

Hacking a strong password could take centuries.

Strong and secure passwords can protect important personal information such as bank details, online records, private documents, online communications, social media accounts, and other information shared online.

Victorians are encouraged to update their password to a passphrase, which is long and contains four or more random words.

Other ways to build a strong and safe password include making it unpredictable without any sequences or personal information and making it unique by using different passwords for different accounts.

The Service Victoria website or app contains a password strength tester tool.

By Corowa Free Press

news