How to protect yourself
Sun Life takes due care in protecting your information. Here’s what you can do to help.
Protecting your information
Identity theft happens when your name, date of birth, Social Insurance Number / Social Security Number, credit card number or other personal information is used illegally to charge expenses to your accounts; create new accounts in your name or for other illegal purposes.
Here’s what you can do to minimize identity theft:
- Don't include your Social Insurance Number / Social Security Number or driver's license number on sensitive documents, unless you understand the purpose and consent to it.
- Don't respond to unsolicited requests for personal or account information.
- Review your credit report at least once a year (See U.S. and Canadian credit agency websites).
- Check your online financial accounts to watch for any suspicious transactions.
- Use a safety deposit box to protect important documents.
- Sign the back of your credit and debit cards as soon as you receive them.
- Cancel and destroy all unused credit and debit cards and cheques.
- Report lost or stolen credit and debit cards immediately.
- Do not record or keep your bank machine personal identification number (PIN), password or Social Insurance Number / Social Security number in your wallet.
- Shred documents and any junk mail containing personal information before you throw them away.
- Don’t leave your personal mail in an area where it can be looked at by others.
- Drop your mail in an official postal mailbox.
Your password is your proof of identity. Using a strong password helps you to protect your identity.
Keep your Sun Life secure site sign-on information (ID and password) confidential to prevent unauthorized use. We recommend that you:
- Change your password on a regular basis.
- Use a strong password that has at least 8 characters with a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters.
- Do not leave your computer unattended while connected to Sun Life secure sites.
- Do not share your password with anyone.
- Do not use the same password twice.
- Do not write your password down.
- Do not store your password in a computer file unless it is encrypted.
- Do not use personal or identifying information as your password, for example, date of birth, name or Social Insurance Number / Social Security Number.
Protecting your computer and mobile devices
- Install anti-virus software on your home computer and make sure it is automatically updated with protection files.
- Never respond to spam emails as this only confirms that your email address is valid.
- Do not click on links in unsolicited emails as you could inadvertently download a virus or spyware to your computer. Type the web address into your browser instead. If you use a financial services company’s website often, create a bookmark and use it when accessing their website.
- Use the spam filter provided by your email provider.
- Be aware of your surroundings when using a public computer (Internet cafes). Others may see what’s on your screen or what you are doing.
- Avoid installing software received as attachments from unknown sources like anonymous emails.
- Avoid installing software from the Internet as it could potentially contain malicious software or malware. Only download and install software from reputable websites.
- Be careful about using public wireless networks to do business where you could potentially expose sensitive information about yourself. Public wireless networks are unprotected and can be accessed by anyone.
- Secure your wireless network at home by changing the default administration ID and password, using a strong password, changing your wireless network name and, most importantly, enabling encryption.
For your security, you will not be able to log in to our secure websites if your browser does not support a minimum of 128-bit encryption. We recommend that you use the most up-to-date browser version with all of the applicable security patches installed. Our service is optimized to work with these commonly used browsers:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 6 or higher - Microsoft Download Centre
- Mozilla Firefox, version 2 or higher – Mozilla Firefox Download Centre
Note: Beta or test versions of browsers are not supported.
Use and update your anti-virus software
Your computer can become infected with malicious software or malware by opening email attachments even from people you know, downloading information from websites and sharing files. It can also become infected just by accessing websites in some cases. Installing and updating anti-virus software can be an effective way to prevent your computer from becoming infected. Anti-virus software is designed to detect and clean viruses. New malware is created every day, so it is important to keep your anti-virus software up to date. Many anti-virus programs will update your computer automatically to ensure it can detect the newest forms of malware.
Use and update your anti-spyware software
Spyware is software installed on your computer without your knowledge or consent and is designed to collect or track personal information. One technique - key logging - records keystrokes to capture sensitive data such as user IDs and passwords as you type them. Once this information is collected, it can be used to access your online accounts.
There are a number of ways spyware can be installed on your computer - through email attachments or through downloaded software such as music or video file sharing programs. Anti-spyware is designed to detect these programs and remove them from your computer. It is important to keep your anti-spyware software up to date to ensure threats are identified before they are able to infect your computer.
To help protect your computer from Internet threats, it is important to keep your operating system up to date. You can do this by installing the latest operating system security updates and patches provided by the operating system manufacturer – like Apple and Microsoft. These updates can be sent to you automatically, provided by manufacturers free of charge. All security updates are usually free of charge.
Personal firewalls help block unwanted communication or unauthorized access to your computer. Using a personal firewall on your computer will help filter information coming into your computer from the Internet. Some operating systems include a firewall that you can enable. You can customize it to control what is permitted to interact with your computer. For more information, visit Microsoft support and search for “personal firewall” or Apples’ Mac support.
Download mobile applications from authorized providers
You should download mobile applications from an authorized provider. This is true for Sun Life Financial applications, which should be installed directly from a Sun Life Financial website or from an authorized provider, such as BlackBerry App World or Apple’s App Store. There is no way of knowing what information will be gathered from an unauthorized application or where it will be sent.
Contact us
To report a suspicious email, website or phone call that you believe is using a Sun Life Financial brand, logo or corporate name inappropriately (or any confusingly similar brand, logo, or corporate name) please contact us and provide as many details as you can, including your country of residence. You should also contact your local police.
If you would like to report fraud, view a list of useful agencies.
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