Keep yourself and your family cyber Safe at Christmas
With the increasing threat of cyber attacks and hacking in the current political environment, it is essential that everyone knows how to keep their personal information safe and secure.
The National Cyber Security Centre has lots of top tips and information on how to keep your information safe – find out more here: You & your family - NCSC.GOV.UK
The NCSC website has information on topics such as: how to shop online securely, keeping your social media account secure, online gaming security and using video conferencing.
You can even answer a few questions to produce your own personalised cyber action plan!
Top Tips for keeping your family safe include:
Use a strong and separate password for your emails
If a criminal can access your email account, they could:
- access private information about you (including your banking details)
- post emails and messages pretending to be from you (and use this to trick other people)
- reset all your other account passwords (and get access to all your other online accounts)
Having a strong and separate password for your email means that if cyber criminals steal the password for one of your less-important accounts, they can’t use it to access your email account.
Look out for suspicious emails
Follow the DCHS guidance available for both your personal and work emails.
Keep apps and software up to date
Always have the latest versions and updates for your software and devices to keep them secure against new cyber threats.
Turn on ‘automatic updates’ on your devices if available.
Turn on 2-step verification (2SV) on your devices and accounts
Turning on 2SV is one of the most effective ways to protect your online accounts from cyber criminals.
This verification works by sending you a PIN via e.g. email or SMS, or using fingerprint or facial recognition, which must be accepted before you can log in to your account.