Windsor

Online security more complicated than asking neighbours to watch your house while you're away

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'It's a disappointing conversation' says security expert

A Windsor woman is sounding the alarm after her personal information was hacked online. (CBC)

A Windsor woman is sounding the alarm after her personal information was hacked online.

Pat Pupulin's credit card information was stolen three months ago — someone, somehow had managed to take over an email account where she stored a lot of financial and personal information.

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She still hasn't gotten her account back under her control.

"It started in early September when my credit card was compromised," said Pupulin. "The bank viewed all the activity, gave me my money back, cancelled the card. That issue was solved."

Pupulin said that's just a small part of what's gone wrong for her.

"I tried to go online that day, in my email accounts ... but a [free] email account was compromised," said Pupulin.

She tried to call the company and went to the company's physical headquarters in Michigan ... but couldn't connect.

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She went to Windsor police, who told her to call credit bureaus to make sure there was no activity on other accounts she had, and put a six-year fraud alert on those accounts. That fraud alert will prevent any big purchases, mortgages or car loans from being made under her name.

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Pupulin doesn't want to just delete her account — she has a lot of other accounts connected to it, including an Ancestry.com account. That information would be lost if she deleted the connected account.

Happens all too often

A former Windsor police officer and current Town of LaSalle councillor, Mike Akpata now works at Blackberry as a cybersecurity expert. He was saddened, but not surprised, by Pupulin's story.

"It's a disappointing conversation," said Akpata. "I feel for [Pupulin] ... It's something that could happen to any of us at any time."

Akpata said people need to make sure their bank cards have different pin numbers, adding that people should also have different passwords for each online account.

A former Windsor police officer and current Town of LaSalle councillor, Mike Akpata now works at Blackberry as a cybersecurity expert. He was saddened, but not surprised, by Pupulin's story. (Dale Molnar/CBC)

"It's unfortunately not reported a lot because there's not a lot that can be done," said Akpata.

In the virtual world, Akpata said it's more difficult than in real life — you can't just ask a neighbour to watch your house while you're away.

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"Something simple is once you've sent an email, erase it in your sent box," said Akpata. "Download it to your computer and delete it from the account."

In the meantime, Pupulin keeps making phone calls. She mostly just wants her Ancestry.com account back — and her financial information protected. She said the person who stole her email account can keep it.

"I'm still working on it," said Pupulin.

She's able to prove her identity to the provincial and federal governments, but the email account that was hacked is owned by an American company, which is making the process more difficult.

Akpata said something like this should encourage everyone to change their passwords.