Cybercrime at Tax Time

The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) advises Australians and Australian businesses to be aware of Business Email Compromise (BEC) threats during tax time. BEC occurs when cybercriminals access email accounts to steal your sensitive and financial information, or commit fraud by impersonating employee or company email accounts to obtain money or data.

What can you do?

Australian individuals and businesses should strengthen their email security by taking the following steps:

• Set secure passphrases for each account.

• Set-up multi-factor authentication.

• Exercise caution when opening attachments or links.

• Think critically before actioning requests for money or sensitive information.

• If you’re a business, establish clear processes for workers to verify and validate requests for payment and sensitive information.

The ACSC’s provides advice (https://www.cyber.gov.au/prote...) on how to protect yourself online.