Be Social. Be Secure.

Social media accounts are powerful tools and a great way to stay in touch with family, friends and keep up to date on the latest news. However, it’s important for young people to know how to manage the security and privacy settings on their accounts, so that personal information remains inaccessible and doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

The tips below will help young people to secure social media accounts:

1. Choose a strong password using three random words.

2. Set accounts to private and review the default privacy settings so that they can control who sees what on their accounts.

3. Always lock devices or log off to prevent unauthorised access to social media accounts.

4. Be careful about personal information that is revealed online. This can be used by cybercriminals for social engineering.

5. Use the block function to protect yourself and others from spam accounts and unwanted followers/interactions.

6. Do not click on links in posts, tweets or direct messages unless young people are 100% certain that they are genuine and well-intentioned - they may be phishing attempts!

After social media, the three main cyber security threats are:

• Hacking to get information, including social media and email password.

• Phishing, where bogus emails asking for security information and personal details.

• Malicious software, through which criminals hijack files and hold them to ransom.

Cyber security is about protecting the devices young people commonly use and the services they access online. It’s also about preventing unauthorised access to the personal information stored on these devices.

Cyber Aware Tips for Parents/Guardians and Children:

1. Protect your email account with a separate password

Your email account contains lots of information about you and is the gateway to all your other online accounts. If you think about it, if someone gets into your email, they could potentially reset the password on all your online accounts. That’s why it’s so important to keep it secure by protecting it with a strong password that is different to all your others.

2. Create a strong password using three random words

Essentially the longer and more unusual your password is, the stronger it becomes and the harder it is for a criminal to hack or guess. The best way to make your password hard to hack is by using a sequence of three random, but memorable, words. For example, “BeachTarantulaOranges”

3. Save your passwords in your browser

You and your family probably have more online accounts than you can keep track of, from banking to shopping to social media to TV streaming services. You should avoid using the same password for different websites and do this by finding a way to remember passwords that works for you.

Saving your passwords in your browser (for example, Google or Bing) is a great way to do this. You might recall seeing a pop up box when you log into a new website from your phone, tablet or laptop, that says “would you like to save this password?” – saying “yes” will take the burden away from you.

4. Turn on two factor authentication

For an added layer of security on your important accounts, such as email, social media and banking, turn on two-factor authentication (2FA). This is a free security feature that’s available on many popular services and helps to prevent criminals accessing your accounts even if they have your password.

What happens is after you have entered your password, you are also sent a text or code when you log in, to check you are who you say you are. So if another person tries to access your account, they can’t even if they have your password.

5. Update your devices

Making sure your devices – your laptop, phone, tablet, games console, smart speaker - have the most up to date software and apps is one of the best things you can do to immediately improve your security.

Cyber criminals exploit weaknesses in software and apps to access your sensitive personal data, but providers are continually working to keep you secure by releasing regular updates. We’d encourage you to regularly check for updates on your devices and apps or set them to automatically update so you don’t have to think about it anymore.

6. Turn on automatic backup

If you’ve ever left your phone in your pocket and not realised until you heard it bouncing round the washing machine, your first two thoughts were probably ‘that’s going to be expensive’ and ‘I hope I haven’t lost all my photos’.

We can’t help with the first thought, but the second one is easy to prepare for; just turn on automatic backup on your device. Not only will it help keep those treasured memories safe so you can access them again when you get a new device; it will also mean that if your phone, tablet or laptop is hacked you can recover quickly from your backup.

7. Report suspicious emails

Phishing is when someone (a criminal) tries to convince you to do something they can use to their advantage.

For example, in a scam email or text message, their goal is often to convince you to click on a link. Once clicked, you may be sent to a website which could download viruses on your computer, or steal your passwords, personal information or bank details.

If you receive an email you think is at all suspicious you can simply forward it to report@phishing.gov.uk. The National Cyber Security Centre will take it down and you will have helped protect others from falling victim to scams.