Cyber Police will be Flintshire on Friday highlighting threats posed to businesses and individuals
The importance of cyber security and the threats posed to businesses and individuals will be highlighted in Flintshire this week when a specially equipped cyber information bus arrives in Mold.
Funded by the Welsh Government and managed by Tarian, the Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) for Southern Wales along with the North West ROCU, the bus will leave Cardiff Bay on 4th March and travel throughout Wales touring all 22 local authority areas in Wales.
The aim of the tour is to raise awareness of cyber security for individuals, groups and businesses, delivering key messaging in line with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the UK National Cyber Security Strategy.
The bus will be staffed by bilingual Police Cyber Protect Officers and other cyber security experts as well as partners such as Get Safe Online & the National Cyber Security Centre.
Statistics recently published by Action Fraud reveal that more than £190,000 a day are lost in the UK by victims of cyber-crime.
More than a third of victims in that period fell prey to the hacking of social media and email accounts.
Action Fraud also say that £34.6m was reported to be stolen from victims between April and September 2018, a 24% increase on the previous six months.
The City of London Police, which runs Action Fraud, has warned people to keep separate passwords for online accounts.
Figures show that 13,357 people in the UK reported cyber-crimes over six months and over 5,000 of those people were hacked via their social media and email accounts, costing victims £14.8m.
Detective Constable Symon Kendall of Tarian said: “We aim to utilise the bus to speak to anyone who is interested in upskilling themselves and we can demonstrate scams and hacks.
“It is estimated that the vulnerability to cybercrime can be reduced by up to 80% by taking five key steps in increasing cyber security.
We recognise that the majority of campaigns rely on social media and website information and the majority of cyber security events are attended by those with an interest in cyber security.
As such we are not reaching the general public and small businesses. This project is designed to go some way towards remedying this.
Executive Member for Business, Tourism, Leisure and Culture, Cllr Alan Jones said, “This is an excellent opportunity for individuals and businesses in Torfaen to learn more about how cyber crime may effect them.
Businesses in particular can be susceptible to a number of online threats and fraudulent activity and i would encourage them to attend in order to understand new ways to safeguard their online activity and mitigate any financial risk.”
The cyber information bus will be in Mold High Street on Friday 8th March between 10am and 1pm.
