Cyber Security Month launched

Locally a growing number of persons are reporting to An Garda Siochana having fallen victim to online scams.

The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD has today (October 1) launched National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Cyber Security Month in cooperation with An Garda Síochána.

The campaign will convey information and tips on the importance of establishing good practices online through two main themes:

For the first theme, ‘Digital Skills’, awareness material will be issued to inform the general public, businesses and employees on protecting their data online and securing their home office, especially timely given the unprecedented numbers of people working from home.

Awareness material on the second theme, ‘Cyber Scams’, will provide insights on current cyber threats to help the general public to minimise risks, with a focus on phishing and spotting online scams. The key message encourages users to have a heightened awareness of cyber scams when they are online.

Locally a growing number of persons are reporting to An Garda Siochana having fallen victim to online scams.

Most recently gardaí in Monaghan issued an alert warning the public of an email circulating demanding payment in Bitcoin by persons who claimed to have hacked personal devices and threaten to leak or publish the victim's personal details.

Speaking today, Minister Ryan said: “As we are now working from home more than ever, people and businesses are being presented with a set of cyber challenges on a scale not ever seen before. Cyber security month is a terrific way to promote knowledge and available tools amongst Irish citizens and organisations to ensure they have the necessary awareness to protect themselves against cyber-related threats.”

Over the course of the month, the NCSC will be putting out awareness-raising tips on the following topics:

Securing your home office

·         Use encryption to secure data

·         Secure your home router by changing the default password

Spotting online scams

Be wary of generic impersonal greetings in e-mails

Look out for requests to send personal details online, don’t send them!

Passwords

Think passphrase instead of a password

Use multifactor authentication (MFA) on your email and social media accounts

The NCSC will also take part in a webinar on 5G Deployment and Security in Ireland hosted by Cyber Ireland on October 14.

The webinar will involve an exciting panel to discuss advantages of 5G and the need for early adoption in Ireland, and the security challenges around the deployment of 5G.