October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month! It’s a great time to review some tips for keeping your accounts and information safe.

Simple steps you can take right now:

• Update your passwords frequently and consider creating a passphrase by combining a series of at least four words that are easy to remember, such as ApplePickingPumpkinSpice0822!
• Make sure you’re running the most recent version of software and operating systems.
• Use current versions of security tools like antivirus software and multifactor authentication.
• Click with caution! Instead of clicking a link, go directly to the institution’s website on your browser, or call them using a phone number you have independently verified.
• Never give out personal information without verifying that you’re speaking to the organization you expect to be speaking to.
• Financial institutions know certain information about you, such as account numbers or your Social Security number. So they should never need to ask you for this information. If someone calls, texts or emails you and asks you to provide sensitive information, that’s a red flag. Please note that if you call Commerce Bank, we may ask you to verify some information about yourself.
• Don’t respond to texts if you don’t recognize the sender, even if it claims to be from a legitimate company. Again, to be on the safe side, call the institution yourself.
• Stay informed about the most recent scams. With the advent of AI, fraud attempts have become more convincing and harder to detect. So it’s more important than ever to be aware.

Take advantage of tools that help protect your identity online, like Commerce ID Recover. For about the price of a cup of coffee, you get a password manager that encrypts and stores your User IDs and passwords, an online vault for secure document storage, and more! Log in to Online Banking link opens in a new window to subscribe.