Tips for staying a tiny step ahead

You’re probably aware of the cyber-attack on M&S and may have received a notification outlining what happened. M&S has been unable to restart online operations since 25 April. The Co-op Group and Harrods were also hit, with Co-op stocks running low and empty shelves to be seen.

These companies have sent information to their customers outlining what they should do. But, if you’re worried, here are three top tips from our Data Governance Team:

• If you’re a customer of any of the compromised retailers, we urge you to change your password to a strong one as soon as possible. You’ll probably be prompted to do so the next time you log in, but sooner is better.

Don’t re-use old passwords or use the same password across different retailers. If you’ve used the same password for other sites, change these immediately. Remember, each account should have its own unique password. A password manager could help you stay on top of this.

You can find our advice on creating strong passwords here.

• Keep a look out for ‘phishing’ scams. There may be an increase in these now or in the near future, and vigilance is the key!

Never give out any personal or financial details on a website you don’t recognise, or in reply to an email or cold calls. Look up the organisation the caller/emailer says they are from on their official website first, to check whether they are genuine.

• Refresh your cyber awareness knowledge. The National Cyber Security Centre has a good training module here. It’s aimed at staff, but the information’s useful for everyone.

Finally, if you’re a gamer, or know anyone who is, we’re also aware that the Steam games platform has been hacked and over 70% of accounts have been compromised. The advice from them is to ensure you have multi factor authentication (MFA) switched on, and not to respond to MFA challenges when you haven't tried to log in.

Stay safe out there!