Cyber Scotland Awareness Week, running from from 22 to 27 April, draws together events taking place across the country to showcase the innovation taking place in the sector, while raising awareness of good cyber resilience practice and promoting a career within the industry.
Cyber security affects us all, whether we realise it or not. Cyber attacks can cause disruption to our daily routines and cyber-enabled crimes such as fraud and identity theft can result in significant financial losses. Cybercrime is crime – just like theft or assault – but the police and other authorities suspect that it is being massively under-reported, because many people don’t treat it as such, or because they may feel embarrassed about falling victim to an online scam.
Information Services have put together four themed days of cyber security information for students and staff covering Passwords, Email, Device and Data Safety.
- Tuesday 23 April – Passwords – why it’s important to keep them secret, when you should change a password, ways to avoid someone guessing your password and the importance of using a unique password for every website and online service
- Wednesday, 24 April – Email Safety – phishing regularly tops the charts as the preferred route for cyber criminals to gain access to organisations and steal data. While it may not be possible to avoid every single phishing message, our tips will help you to avoid many of them and will tell you what to do if you think you may have fallen victim to a phishing attack
- Thursday, 25 April – Device Safety – almost everyone has at least one mobile device. This session covers how to keep the information on your device secure, the importance of software and app updates and what to do if your device is lost or stolen
- Friday, 26 April – Data Safety – staff in particular have access to large amounts of information, including confidential data on students, finance and research. Knowing where that information is being kept, who has access to it and if it’s properly protected against damage or loss is essential to University business
Information on all sessions can be accessed online here.