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I recently attended a Cyber Security seminar conducted by our bank and whilst I was aware that cybercrime is on the up, I was surprised to hear the statistics quoted and the examples of how their clients have been affected by this.
Cybercrime could affect anyone, both personally and/or professionally and the consequences could be very costly. How confident are you in respect of your cyber security? I have provided a list of just some of the questions we should all be asking ourselves in this respect:-
Do you use a “Strong” Password? Ideally aim for 3 random words and at least one number and one symbol (see the table below which shows just how important this is!)
How strong is your email password? Where does it fit in on the table below? Just think about how much information could be accessed if your email account was hacked!
Do you use the same password for various sites/applications? If one is compromised, a hacker can then try the same one for numerous other sites.
Would you open an unexpected email or click on an unusual link? Think twice! Is this genuine…..consider things like checking the grammar and spelling as this can be a giveaway of a spam email. Hover your mouse over the email address to see who the true sender actually is, as scammers can impersonate an email address so that it looks like it has come from someone else.
Do you have a process in place for dealing with Invoice Payments in your business and adhere to this at ALL times, no matter what? Invoice Redirection is a common method used by fraudsters, who have access to all kinds of information about your business and colleagues from the likes of Linkedin, your company website, Companies House etc, all of which they can use to their advantage.
Is your Social Media secure? This short (1.38 minutes) video shows just how easy it is for our personal data to be accessed and the importance of this How private is your personal information? - YouTube (Source: YouTube/Action Fraud)
Of course no one is completely bulletproof when it comes to Cybersecurity but we can at least do what we can to make it as difficult as possible for a hacker to access our data or for a fraudster to trick us. Anita Brennan
Operations Director