CyberScotland Week - Staying Safe Online
Cyber Threats are a reality that affect us all, in both our personal and professional lives
cyberscotland.com
CyberScotland week runs from 24th February 2025 and invites individuals, organisations and communities across Scotland to raise awareness of Cyber Security and strengthen our collective cyber resiliance.
As part of this week, Highland Hospital Radio broadcast an interview with Gordy Macdonald, Cybercrime Protection, Incident Support and Training Officer from Police Scotland. Gordy works in Police Scotland's Cybercrime Harm Prevention Team.
During his chat with Tom, Gordy explained some of the simple things we can all do to help stay safe online.
Think about Passwords. Do you use the same password for all your online accounts?
“How many keys do you have to lock your house, shed, garage or car? The answer is we use different keys to lock our property. Imagine if you just had one key and it was stolen, the criminal would be able to gain access to your house, shed, garage, car etc. using that single key.
That would be the same if a cybercriminal guessed the single password you use for all your online accounts. They would have access to all your personal data, especially your online banking, shopping, social media and email accounts.
So, having more than one password for your different online accounts is the safest way to protect them from being attacked and to protect your data from being stolen by cyber criminals. "
Gordy also gave advice on
- How to pick a good password
- Social Media - How much of your data is available to Cyber Criminals?
- Using Two Factor Authentication
- Accessing sensitive data while on public wi-fi
- The importance up making sure all your devices are running the latest software
You can listen to the full interview below. Here is also a list of links mentioned by Gordy during the interview. If you even want to contact the Cybercrime Harm Prevention team, you can email them at PPCWCyberHarmPrevention@scotland.police.uk
