One of the great challenges to accessing the online world with its Google-delivered answers to most important questions, streaming of TV programs, getting pizza and even paying bills, is remembering your password!

All Aussie businesses and consumers have been given another wake-up call about the threat of cybercrime and password security, with another local firm hacked by online thieves.

Latitude Financial believes identification documents of 328,000 customers were stolen, including the driver’s licence details of about 100,000 customers. The company is contacting affected customers but Dr Jabed Chowdhury, a lecturer at La Trobe University’s Cyber Security Program, says it’s time for better password and identity management.

He told SMH/The Age journalist Colin Kruger that we need a two- or three-steps password protection process. The question is: how extensive must this protection process be?

Latitude says the hacking happened via suppliers they use, which means eventually all businesses are going to be forced to have gold-level cyber protection to get business from other businesses, and even consumers, if they want our personal details.

This case puts the focus on something that lots of us use, namely login details, with a Latitude spokesperson saying that “the attacker appears to have used the employee login credentials to steal personal information that was held by two other service providers.”

So many businesses and consumers have login passwords and they’re often shared, which creates a point of vulnerability for the business and the records they keep!

In case you missed this, the threat to all of us is so significant that we now have a Federal Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil, who has responded to this new cyber crime with the following: “This incident is another reminder for everyone in the community to be vigilant about their personal cybersecurity.”

Unfortunately, these are only words. Most people and businesses will carry on until they possibly become victims of these online attackers, or until governments learn how to stop these criminals!

Clearly, the punishment for online crimes has to be escalated and businesses and consumers will be forced to get more protected against these criminals, which ultimately will cost us money.

Businesses will be forced to have better security and cyber insurance to protect customers and this will be added to prices that customers pay.