Cybersecurity

Technological advancement has made access to financial products and services much simpler and easier for individuals and organizations. Consequently, this has also made it more challenging for financial institutions, organizations, and individuals to combat the many tools that cyber criminals have at their disposal. Being aware of the potential threats and the necessary measures to mitigate security breaches are the first two steps to a successful cybersecurity programme.

The information below is a good start to protecting your information and identity.

• Do not share passwords
• Set up alerts for online banking

                    -This allows an individual to receive notification when online banking is accessed, bill payees are added, eTransfer recipient added, and more

                    -Alerts work effectively on personal and business accounts

                    -See Banking Services for more information on Alerts

• Clear internet cache regularly
• Use a password manager
• Install enterprise-grade antivirus protection software, monitored by a reputable IT provider

PAC stands for Personal Access Code, and is another name for your password.  Online credentials can be numerous as they are needed for email accounts, social networking sites, online newspapers and shopping websites. That's a lot of usernames and passwords – and it can be tempting to use the same combination for everything. But this makes it far too easy for hackers because once they have one password, they can access all your sites. Login credentials are the keys to your accounts so don't leave those keys around for anyone to find. For online banking, the key is your Personal Access Code (PAC). We recommend you:

• Choose a PAC that is easy for you to remember but difficult for others to guess. Avoid using current phone numbers, dates of birth, or social insurance numbers.
• Be smart and don't save a list of your credentials on your PC. If you have to write them down, keep these details locked away somewhere only you can access or consider using password-management software, which secures and encrypts usernames and passwords and allows you to use a single master password.
• Do not share your PAC with anyone, especially online. Employees of our financial institution will never call, email, write or ask you to provide your online banking credentials. Ever.
• Don't authorize browsers to memorize your credentials. Saving these on your computer allows anyone using your PC to gain access to your login-protected sites.
• Consider changing your PAC every 90 days for optimum security. 

Ransomware is one of our biggest concerns—it’s a specific type of cyberattack where hackers deploy malware, then force you to pay a ransom in order to regain access to your system.

We’re also always concerned with monitoring and preventing lateral phishing takeover attacks. Through these types of cyberattacks, hackers gain access to an employee’s email account. Then, they set up rules to extract valuable data and information. Once hackers find a piece of information they can exploit, they use it to create a genuine-looking email to everyone in the employee’s address book.

With advanced technologies and machine learning, hackers can make phishing emails look frighteningly legitimate. As other employees open and interact with the email, hackers gain access to more data and information until the entire organization is potentially affected.