IT expert issues warning as Northern Ireland locals lose £18 million to scammers in the past year

According to the latest data from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), thousands of residents have fallen victim to cybercrime in the last twelve months.

This also follows a recent warning to NatWest customers of an increased number of impersonation emails, as well as ‘dodgy’ Tesco vouchers making the rounds on social media, that are urging people to enter their personal details on a fake website.

Cyber scams are becoming more sophisticated than ever through recent advancements in artificial intelligence too, as councils around the country are also now warning drivers about scanning fake QR codes at parking machines.

The NFIB Fraud and Cyber Crime Dashboard shows that of the 5,631 cases recorded from individual victims, over 1,200 were related to online shopping and auctions, whereas nearly 400 reports were received about hacking, social media and email scams.

In total, the losses from all cybercrime and fraud targeting individuals in Northern Ireland amounted to a staggering £18.2M, or just over £3,200 per report received.

In a bid to help everyone avoid becoming a victim of hacking, Cybersecurity expert Tim Hall, CTO at managed IT services provider Boxxe, shares his top tips on how to stay safe online:

Think twice before clicking. Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have become the favourite target of cyber criminals, according to a recent report by PhishLabs.

While it’s easy to quickly click on a link or download an attachment without thinking, Tim warns to always stop and think whether the message is genuine.

He urges consumers to verify suspicious emails or texts using the SLAM acronym:

Sender – Hackers often mimic trusted email address. To verify the sender’s identity, hover your mouse over the sender’s real identity. You should also check for typos in the organisation’s or company’s name in the domain address after the @.

Links – Phishing emails generally contain links to fake websites which steal your login information or private details. Hover over the link to check its legitimacy, and if in doubt access your account by going through the regular homepage on your browser, not by clicking the link.

Attachments – Never open links from a sender you don’t know. Attachments are often used by hackers to infiltrate victim’s systems with viruses. If in doubt, verify with the sender using official contact details (not those listed in the message)

Message – Phishing emails often contain generic greetings, spelling mistakes, and calls to urgency or threats to make you perform an action. You should also check whether the message is sent outside of regular business hours.

Use a password manager. Even though 91% of people understand that reusing passwords is a risk, 80% of confirmed breaches are related to stolen, weak or reused passwords, according to Norton.

Remembering lots of passwords and making sure they’re strong is hard work, but using a Password Manager can cut the number of passwords you have to remember to just one.

The Password Manager will handle the rest, from coming up with new passwords that are long and cryptic, to storing them securely online, and auto-filling them on forms when you need them.

Enable two-factor authentication. Even if a hacker does gain access to your password through a breach, two factor authentication will keep them out of your account by requiring a second form of identification.

This can be in the form of SMS, email and app-generated codes, or biometric verification through fingerprint for example.

While it does make the sign-in process longer, this is a vital safeguard.

You should always look to enable this feature on your most important online accounts, such as email, online banking and cloud backup services.

Keep all device software up to date. The newest laptops and smartphones get regular software updates and security patches to keep on top of new threats. It can help to have automatic updates enabled to make sure you stay on the safe side.

Likewise, mobile apps often get updated too, so make sure you keep downloading the newest version via the official app store of your device.

Use a VPN on public networks. Public WiFi is a convenient way of staying connected while traveling or going out. However, without proper precautions hackers can use these to spy on you, and even steal your personal information and passwords.

You should avoid conducting sensitive tasks while on public WiFi, such as online banking, and use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) app to encrypt your connection and keep it private.

Avoid posting personal things on public social media. Lastly, it’s important to be careful about what info you share about yourself online.

Information can be used by hackers to build a profile on you and attempt to guess answers to common security questions, or even impersonate you to trick family members or friends to give them access to your information.

Tim Hall, CTO at managed IT services provider Boxxe added: “Hacking is a big problem affecting thousands of innocent people and businesses every year.

"Victims of hacking suffer emotionally, and often financially, so it’s important to stay vigilant and not become complacent as anyone can become a target.

"All these tips to improve your cybersecurity apply for consumers as well as businesses, because employees can also become a target of hacking and social engineering scams.

"If you think you have been hacked, you should recover or lock down your online accounts as soon as possible, inform your bank to freeze your accounts, notify your contacts, and report it to Action Fraud.”