TORONTO —
As a recent breach of 5,500 accounts with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has shown, personal hygiene isn’t the only thing Canadians need to worry about during this pandemic.
According to Ritesh Kotak, a digital technology expert, it’s important to keep up with your “cyber hygiene” as well to ensure you don’t become a victim of digital fraud.
The CRA temporarily suspended its online services on the weekend in response to the cyberattack. The agency, which has been used by thousands of Canadians during the pandemic to apply for the $2,000-per-month Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) for COVID-19, said the attack was a “credential stuffing” scheme.
One victim told the Canadian Press that someone who had hacked into her account applied for CERB in her name and received funds by using her information.
But what is “credential stuffing”? And how can Canadians stay safe?
“A credential is a username and password, and stuffing is when, essentially you have these usernames and passwords and you test them against very popular sites,” Kotak told CTV News.
Hackers who have acquired hundreds of usernames and passwords will turn to bots to see if the account details allow them access to anything.
“This bot will actually go out, and it will try to input your username and password into popular sites, and if there’s a match, then the fraudster gets notified,” Kotak said.
“So the big question is, how do these hackers even get your username and password? And the most common way is through other breaches.”
If financial institutions, hotels, airlines or any place you have given your information, get hacked, that personal information, such as a username, an email address and a password, can now be accessed and shared, Kotak explained.
“And if you’re re-using your username and password, you now become vulnerable to these types of attacks.”
If the login you’ve used to book a hotel that suffers a breach is the same as your login for your bank account, or another account that contains banking details on it, these hackers can gain access to an extraordinary amount of data.
“Once you get access to somebody’s account, it is whatever information is available on that account, you now have access to it,” Kotak said. “So it could be your personal information, your financial information, your previous returns, essentially anything. And once you’re in, you can also change up information, such as your mailing address or email address to make it even more difficult for the rightful owner to gain access back to their account.”
With this recent breach on the CRA, Kotak said it seems that the hackers were purely “after the money.”
“It seems that the motivation behind these breaches is strictly financial. It is to get as much money in a short amount of time as possible, without getting detected.”
‘BASIC CYBER HYGIENE’
Much like with guarding against COVID-19, the strategies you can use to avoid becoming the victim of a “credential stuffing” plot are as simple as putting on a mask or washing your hands.
Just use different passwords and usernames, Kotak says.
“It is convenient for us to use the same username and password,” he admitted. “We have maybe a hundred different accounts online, we have our email, we have data storage, we might have our food delivery apps, so we have a lot of different apps that all require usernames and passwords. And as a result, a lot of us kind of get a little bit lazy.
“Let this be a lesson on why it is important to have different usernames and passwords for different sites, so if a breach does occur, you will not be affected.”
Kotak calls it “basic cyber hygiene to have different usernames and passwords.” He emphasized that creating “strong passwords” which mix upper and lowercase letters, numbers, symbols, and avoid using “dictionary words” is also important.
However, he said the blame is not on just one person for these types of breaches.
There are other parties involved, such as the CRA, and other financial institutions, which are responsible for putting in fraud detection mechanisms to catch these schemes early on.
“This is joint responsibility,” he said. “As users, use different usernames and passwords. As the CRA, or any government entity, ensure that you put proper security measures in place, and you use some sort of anomaly detection, and same thing with these financial institutions. If we all take these steps, then these types of breaches are preventable.”
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
