10 top tips to prevent cybercrime

Cybercrime is any illegal activity which is carried out through the use of a computer and the internet. A computer could be a laptop, desktop, tablet or other device handheld device.

For all of us cybercrime is becoming more and more of an issue, both in our home and working lives. Almost all of us will have received a message from friends or colleagues saying my email has been hacked or don’t open a message. And at that point I am sure we all sympathise with the person affected.

So make sure you follow these recommended tips to help protect your and your clients’ information and make life a bit more difficult for cyber criminals:

• Always lock the screen or log out of your computer when you leave your work station, even if it’s ‘just for a minute’.
• Don’t assume an email is authentic and to be trusted.
• Never open e-mail attachments or click on links sent to you from unknown sources.
• When uploading and downloading files (particularly sensitive documents), only use trusted sites.
• Only send bank account details by post and not by email;
• Ensure strong passwords are used and passwords are changed regularly;
• Limit web browsing to work-specific sites if practicably possible.
• Be careful when logging into public WiFi connections as fake hotspots can be created by cunning cyber-criminals.
• Don’t use private computers for work purposes.
• Be careful using other unencrypted devices such as memory sticks.

If you’d like to know more detail about cybercrime, we’ve written a short and simple article which you can read here.

If you need more information and support on what to do and where to access help and a wide range of other articles then visit the Risk Management section on the CILEx Regulation website.