"The next generation of criminals have a well-established home in cyberspace."
October is Cyber Awareness month and the OPP are releasing a number of online safety tips to keep you protected from cybercrime.
One thing they want to stress is having a strong password for your Wi-Fi network. You can strengthen your password by including a variety of symbols, letters and numbers. Try to keep it a minimum of 8 characters and use upper and lower case letters and at least 1 number.
Wi-Fi hot spots are common targets for identity thieves. Police are warning everyone to never send or receive private information when using public Wi-Fi because it can be stolen. Also sometimes free Internet access points are established just to get your information and are purposely named to imitate legitimate access points.
Deputy Commissioner Rick Barnum with the OPP Investigations and Organized Crime unit says today's criminals are very tech savvy.
"The next generation of criminals have a well-established home in cyberspace. It is incumbent upon all of us to do whatever we can to protect our identities and information from those who will exploit that information for criminal gain without hesitation -- regardless of where they or you are located."
Insp. Lisa Taylor with the OPP Behavioural, Forensic and Electronic Services says this is why it is so crucial to protect your passwords.
"We can't stress enough how important it is to create, use and regularly change strong passwords and to take all steps necessary to safeguard your information when you are connected through any Wi-Fi hub. At the very minimum, make sure that any site you interact with uses HTTPS rather than unencrypted HTTP connections."
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