Leicestershire Police urge residents to stay cyber safe

Today’s global awareness day ‘Safer Internet Day’ is being highlighted by Leicestershire Police.

From cyberbullying to social networking to digital identity, Safer Internet Day (SID) aims to raise awareness of risks such as hacking and identity theft.

Cyber Protect Officer PC Ethan Lang said: “Our work to protect young people from online risks run throughout the year but SID helps to focus people’s attention and hopefully gets young people and their carers to think about what tools are available to protect them.

“One of the main concerns we see on a regular basis is hacking of social media accounts. These crimes can be seen as people stealing a few passwords, causing a few computers to break, messaging people online. But the truth is that these crimes cause incredible distress to people who lose their Facebook, Instagram, email accounts. And from there, their identities might be used to commit further offences of fraud or theft. Their accounts can sometimes be used to share offensive images or abusive messages.

“There a few very simple steps people can take to reduce their chances of falling victim to this.”

They include using strong and separate passwords for different accounts, installing the latest software and app updates – or turning on 'automatic updates' in your device's settings – and turning on 2-Step Verification to protect important accounts such as email, banking and social media.

Two-factor authentication helps to keep cyber criminals out of your accounts, even if they know your passwords. The NCSC recommends you take time to set up 2-step verification on all your important accounts, even for ones that you've protected with strong passwords.

Password managers can store all your passwords securely, so you don’t have to worry about remembering them. This allows you to use unique, strong passwords for all your important accounts.

Weak passwords can be cracked in seconds. The longer and more unusual a password is, the harder it is for a cyber-criminal to crack. Police recommend

combining three random words to create a single password as an alternative to a password manager.

Avoid the most common passwords that criminals can easily guess as well as those from significant dates, a favourite sports team, or by using family and pet names - details can be found on social media.

Swapping letters for numbers, for example ‘o’ for zero is a trick Cyber criminals know and should also be avoided.

PC Lang further added: “If you’re not sure about whether you are at risk learn how to protect yourself online with the Cyber Aware Action Plan. Answer a few questions on topics like passwords and 2-Step Verification (2SV), and get a free personalised list of actions that will help you improve your cyber security.

Visit https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/cyberaware/actionplan to complete a survey on cyber security.

An interactive game online ‘CyberSprinters’ can also encourage youngsters to make smart decisions about staying secure online.

Visit https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/cybersprinters to give it a try.