Build Wealth Canada Podcast (CA)
Is Your Portfolio Safe? The Security Checklist Every Canadian Investor Needs
Why It Matters
As more Canadians invest via low‑cost ETFs and conduct financial tasks online, cybercriminals are targeting these digital assets, especially during tax season. Implementing the discussed security measures helps protect hard‑earned wealth, reduces the risk of identity theft, and ensures investors can continue growing their portfolios without fear of fraud.
Key Takeaways
- •Enable multi-factor authentication on all financial accounts.
- •Use unique, complex passwords with a reputable password manager.
- •Update devices, install antivirus, and use VPN on public Wi‑Fi.
- •Monitor activity, set alerts, and review statements regularly.
- •Verify CRA communications via official website; avoid unsolicited links.
Pulse Analysis
In this Build Wealth Canada episode, host Cornell Schreiber tackles a growing concern for Canadian index investors: protecting a now‑larger portfolio from cyber threats. He brings in Leigh Tynan, Telus’s Director of Online Security, to outline a practical security checklist that goes beyond market volatility. The conversation highlights why online safety matters for anyone whose net worth is tied up in low‑cost ETFs, especially as AI‑driven fraud becomes more sophisticated and tax‑season scams surge.
Tynan’s step‑by‑step guide starts with the fundamentals: enable multi‑factor authentication on every brokerage, bank and investment platform, and avoid using email as the second factor. Pair each account with a unique, 12‑to‑16‑character password generated and stored in a reputable password manager. Keep operating systems, apps and firmware patched, install reputable antivirus or anti‑malware tools, and always route public‑Wi‑Fi traffic through a VPN to encrypt data. Real‑time alerts, regular statement reviews, and credit‑monitoring services add layers of detection, while a credit freeze can halt unauthorized account openings. These measures are largely free, but Telus bundles them—including dark‑web monitoring and identity recovery—into an all‑in‑one package for roughly $12 CAD (about $9 USD) per month.
The episode also warns that tax season is a prime window for CRA impersonation scams. Fraudsters exploit the urgency of filing by sending fake emails, texts or calls that claim refunds, errors or overdue balances, often demanding payment via gift cards or cryptocurrency—methods the CRA never uses. Listeners are urged to verify any CRA communication through the official My Account portal, avoid clicking unsolicited links, and never share personal identifiers like SIN or banking details unless they have initiated the contact. By combining strong authentication, vigilant monitoring, and disciplined verification habits, Canadian investors can safeguard both their wealth and their identity against the evolving digital threat landscape.
Episode Description
As the markets hit all-time highs again, one of the things that has become top of mind for me personally is how to make sure that our investments are actually secure.
If you're a long-term passive, total market index investor like me, then you've definitely seen your portfolio grow quite substantially over the years. With this, one begins to wonder: What can be done to ensure the security of those investments?
In this case, I'm not talking about the volatility of the investments themselves, but rather how to ensure that our investment and other financial accounts do not get hacked, that someone doesn't destroy our credit score, and that we don't become victims of identity theft, among the many other security threats that exist.
This is especially prevalent in this age of AI, where it is easier than ever for someone to replicate our voice, or have AI crawl the internet to pull personal information about us that can be used to access our sensitive accounts, steal our money, or make critical changes that can cripple our net worth.
Especially since it's tax season right now, where we have to be extra diligent due to things like CRA scams, I thought it would be a good idea to do a deep dive on the bases we need to cover from a security standpoint when it comes to our finances.
With that, I wanted to bring on an expert who literally works in the security industry day in and day out, to take us through the bases we need to have covered, as well as provide us with some practical solutions, including free and paid tools that we can use to ensure we are not being negligent on the security side of our finances.
My guest today is Leigh Tynan. She's been the Director of Online Security at TELUS here in Canada for the past six years. My goal was to have her come on almost like a personal security consultant for you and me, to teach us what bases we need to cover when it comes to our online security here in Canada, and also how and when we should actually use the different security tools out there.
I figured in this world of online security, it's one of those cases where we don't know what we don't know. So, it would be valuable to have someone in Canada from the actual security industry come on to give us a checklist of sorts, along with an explanation, so that we can ensure there isn't some component we forgot about, or didn't even know about, that ends up being the avenue through which our private information is leaked or our sensitive financial accounts are compromised.
Alright, let's get into the interview.
Resources from the Episode:
TELUS Online Security (what I've been using)
Free Digital Literacy Education Resources from TELUS Wise
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