Cyber Security & Passwords Tips

According to MetCloud “with the UK’s annual online Christmas spending valued at around £25billion, cyber-criminals will be looking to take their share”.

So as we head into Christmas (even though everything seems to have a started a little early this year) we need to make sure that when buying anything online, which a lot of us do especially with various lockdown restrictions in place stopping us going into shops, that we’re being extra cautious that the websites we’re using are legitimate and the payment screens are secure.

Tips to help you

• Check for ‘https’ at the start of the website url – the ‘s’ stands for secure.
• If possible use a credit card for payments - credit cards provide protection if things go wrong with a purchase.
• Be wary of emails from retailers offering deals or cash prizes. Check the email address and don’t click on any links embedded in the message. Even an “unsubscribe” link could be malicious.
• If an offer seems too good to be true, it might just be that. Do you research.
• Avoid shopping whilst using public Wi-Fi – this is very easy to hack.

Password protection

Passwords – we all have them, we all need them and we’ve all probably ‘forgotten password’ only to be told you cannot use your current password.

Society today are using more and more technology that requires password protection – social media, emails, online banking etc so it's safe to assume we’ve all have a list of passwords that we need to keep track of. When you open a new account and need to create a password do you choose a new one or do you create a version of a password you already use?

In 2019 the National Cyber Security Centre reported that the most used password in the UK, with 23.2m people using it, was 123456. As part of the Cyberhood Watch initiative, launched in 2019 in partnership with Avast, Neighbourhood Watch have launched the Protect your Pa$$W0rD National Campaign to help us all protect ourselves from being hacked and becoming a victim of cybercrime.

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