Some things you should know about: Your Online Security

Securing your personal information is important to us and is a partnership between you and DFAS. Here’s some tips to keep your two-factor authentication information safe when accessing your myPay account:
 

• Securing your personal email and mobile number is one way you can help protect your personal information on myPay and other organizations you do businesses with online.
• Change the password for your email account often. Many email providers offer two-factor authentication to make sure only you can send and receive messages in your account.
• Using your email address as a user ID for myPay or any other online service may be convenient and easy to remember; some services may even set your email address as your user ID by default. When possible, create a unique user ID that is not part of your email address and is not used for any of your other accounts.
• Review privacy settings for sites you frequent, especially social media platforms. Specialized social media platforms intended to connect and assist veterans can also be a gold mine for collecting pieces of information about you by a fraudster. Do not use your email address as your public identity on any site.
• Two-factor authentication adds an important extra layer of security for many online applications, from email to interactions with financial institutions and online shopping. All myPay accounts are now required to use two-factor authentication. Making sure your email account is secure is even more important if you chose to receive a one-time PIN via email message.
• Many mobile carriers offer account takeover protection for mobile telephone numbers. Protection can come in various forms such adding a PIN or password to your account. Contact your carrier to find out what options are available to you.
• If keeping your email or mobile phone account secure proves difficult or you experience delays in receiving one-time PINs when accessing myPay, you may want to consider using an authenticator app that will provide a secure PIN without needing to receive an email or text.
• Find out more about the benefits of using an  authenticator app and how to set it up for use with your myPay account

Keep email and phone accounts away from cyber threats

Criminals are always looking for information. A persistent tactic involves email account takeovers when the bad actors get account details (passwords, etc.) from data breaches, phishing scams and buying your  data on the dark web. The same is also true for smartphone numbers and accounts.

After an email account or phone number has been hijacked, email and text messages can be intercepted, including those providing two-factor authentication one time PINs. Developing habits to change email and smartphone passwords and codes can help foul attempts to access your online accounts that can cost you money and the grief of trying to recover from identity theft.