Case Studies

Beware online ahead of Mother’s Day

by Mark Rowe

Avoid fraudsters ahead of Mother’s Day, advises the UK official National Cyber Security Centre if you are making online orders. As the NCSC says, the coronavirus restrictions have led to a shift from in-store to online shopping.

The NCSC – a part of GCHQ – is asking people to follow the cross-government Cyber Aware campaign advice to help secure their devices from cyber criminals who may look to cash in on Mother’s Day on Sunday. The Cyber Aware advice at www.cyberaware.gov.uk sets out six behaviours people can follow to help them stay secure online.

NCSC Deputy Director for Economy and Society, Sarah Lyons said: “Cyber criminals are opportunistic and always ready to exploit peak online shopping moments, and unfortunately, family occasions like Mother’s Day are no different.

“We want everyone to shop with confidence and peace of mind this Mother’s Day. The Cyber Aware website has advice on the six key behaviours that can be easily followed to protect yourself.”

Those six behaviours are:

– Use a strong and separate password for your email
– Create strong passwords using three random words
– Save your passwords in your browser
– Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA)
– Update your devices and apps; and
– Back up your data.

People who receive suspicious emails with Mother’s Day gift offers can also forward them to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service, using the email address [email protected]. Anybody who receives a suspicious text message can report this by forwarding it to 7726.

Visit https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/.

Comments

Carl Wearn, Head of E-Crime at cyber firm Mimecast, said: “During Black Friday last year Mimecast scanned the Internet for over two weeks for abuse of 20 major retailers’ brands and detected nearly 14,000 suspicious internet domains. Consumers should therefore be vigilant and make sure they take the recommended steps to keep their data safe whilst shopping online. Things to look out for include: bad spelling, urgency in the messaging to buy, logos and branding not looking correct, and URLs looking suspiciously long. If in doubt, always navigate to the official website safely via your browser. Similarly, email phishing campaigns will continue to be prominent, so consumers should always be wary of clicking on any links within emails.”

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