Cybersecurity basics
Phishing and deepfake scams, passwords and passkeys, updates and backups, Wi-Fi at home and away, personal data, and a calm plan for when something goes wrong.
- Phishing and social engineering. Suspicious emails, texts and calls, including AI voice and deepfake scams.
- Passwords, passkeys and sign-in. Passphrases, password managers, passkeys and multi-factor sign-in.
- Devices, updates and backups. Updates, screen locks, safe downloads, backups and ransomware.
- Networks and Wi-Fi. Home routers, guest networks, public Wi-Fi and VPNs.
- Personal data and privacy. Sharing less online, and GDPR basics for everyday life and small teams.
- Incidents and recovery. Spotting that something is wrong, reporting it quickly and recovering safely.
Phishing and social engineering
- Pressure is the tell. Urgency, fear or a prize to claim now: scammers rush you so you never stop to check.
- Check the real sender. The name can say anything. Read the address after it, and the domain after the @.
- Look before you click. Link text can lie. Hover, or press and hold on a phone, to see where it really goes.
- Calls phish too. A caller from your bank wants a code? Hang up and ring the number on your card.
Passwords, passkeys and sign-in
- Long beats clever. Three random words beat a short jumble like P@ss1. Length is what makes guessing slow.
- Let a manager remember. A password manager makes a different strong password for every site, and fills it in for you.
- Passkeys, no typing. A passkey signs you in with your fingerprint, face or PIN. There is nothing to type, and nothing to leak.
- Add a second step. A code or a tap on top of your password stops most account takeovers.
Devices, updates and backups
- Update soon. Updates close holes attackers already know about. Turn on automatic updates for phone, laptop and apps.
- Lock the screen. A PIN or fingerprint lock stops a lost phone becoming an open door to your accounts.
- Back up, then test. Keep a backup apart from the device, and check that you can really restore from it.
Networks and Wi-Fi
- Password or open? A Wi-Fi network with a password scrambles your traffic. An open one scrambles nothing.
- Beware the twin. Two networks with the same name, one open? Ask staff which is theirs before you join.
- Money on your own data. For banking or payments when out, use mobile data or your own hotspot, not public Wi-Fi.
- Change the router's password. Home routers arrive with default passwords. Change yours, and keep the router's firmware up to date.
Personal data and privacy
- Share less. Birthdays, pets and home towns answer security questions. Think twice before posting them publicly.
- Check app permissions. Does a torch app need your contacts? Switch off permissions an app does not need.
- Your data, your rights. In the EU and UK you can ask a company for a copy of your data, and often for its deletion.
Incidents and recovery
- Clicked a bad link? Stay calm. Change that password from another device, and turn on two-step sign-in.
- Tell someone early. At work, report a slip straight away. Early reports stop an attack spreading.
- Money gone? Ring the bank. Call the number on your card at once. Speed matters when stopping a payment.
- Restore, do not pay. After ransomware, wipe and restore from a clean backup rather than paying the criminals.
Free practice with a starting check, an explanation after every answer and a final check.