Cyber crime

What you need to know

Cyber security’s primary purpose is to ensure the devices and online services used online for both personal and professional purposes are protected from unauthorised access, theft or damage. If cyber criminals get into your device or accounts, they could access your money, your personal information, or information about your organisation or school.

Whilst for some cyber security is considered a subject for technical experts there are simple steps that everyone can take to reduce the risk of becoming the victim of cyber criminals. These include creating and using strong passwords, ensuring that devices and software including apps are updated regularly, backing up your data or adding additional protection such as multifactor authentication where possible.

It’s important to be able to recognise the techniques used by cyber criminals to gain access to devices and services such as Phishing. A phishing e-mail is a message which asks users to follow a link to an unknown website which could download malware onto your computer, or steal passwords. Being alert to these techniques and how emerging technologies, such as generative AI, can be misused to create a higher volume of sophisticated online fraud and scams is crucial in avoiding a cyber-attack.