Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and cyber-crime, has revealed that almost 100,000 people in the UK have fallen victim to online shopping fraud in the past 13 months. This has seen over £60 million being reported lost. The average cost of attacks to affected small and medium-sized businesses during this period was £2,670.
According to the government's own statistics, four in ten businesses (39%) and a quarter of charities (26%) reported having cyber security breaches or attacks last year. Interestingly, around 50% of property businesses reported such attacks.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is encouraging people to shop online securely by following five actionable steps:
Keeping accounts secure - strong and separate passwords should be used for the most important online accounts, including email, banking or payment accounts (such as PayPal). The NCSC recommends using three random words to create a password. Turning on two-step verification can add an extra layer of protection.
If your property business employs staff then be sure to educate them and keep them up to date on cyber security awareness when using any devices connected to your network. It is good practice to try and ensure that PCs, phones, and other devices provided by the business are not used for personal activities such as online shopping and that staff do not use their business email address to set up accounts on websites that aren't for business use. It is not just the business that is at risk. Staff may also be targeted individually resulting in personal financial loss, theft of their personal data, or identity fraud.
Stay up to date and stay safe.