Hackers don't just target companies. They target you | Cyber Smart Week 2026
Posted on Friday, 30 October 2026
Cyber criminals don't always need to hack into a computer to steal information.
Sometimes, all they need is a convincing email, text or phone call. They can use information from social media, like a LinkedIn profile picture, posts about your pets, family, or holidays, or even old phone and email addresses learn about you, and use those details to make a scam seem genuine.
In 2025, New Zealanders lost an estimated $3 billion to scams and fraud, with people encountering an average of 152 scam attempts during the year – roughly one every two days.
Today's five-minute action is to make yourself a harder target. You can:
- Turn on multi-factor authentication on your accounts
- Make your social media files private or locked
- Remove or delete old accounts
- Create unique, long passwords for each account
- Occasionally search for yourself online to see what information is available
By sharing less information publicly, stopping to check suspicious requests and reporting anything that doesn't seem right, you can help keep yourself, your whānau and ANZCO safe online.