2022 Cyber Aware campaign

14 November 2022 at 10:24:38

Campaign overview: Autumn 2022

Campaign background:

The Cyber Aware campaign is HMG's flagship cyber security campaign, bringing together expertise from the NCSC as the UK's technical authority on cyber security, Cabinet Office, DCMS, Home Office and law enforcement, including City of London Police and partners.
Since April 2020, members of the public have reported over 15 million suspicious emails to the UK's cyber experts, resulting in the take down of more than 184,000 online scams.
According to the latest available insight from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, there were nearly 20,000 online Christmas shopping fraud reports between November 2021 and January 2022, with the average financial loss as £1000 per victim. This year, the threat of this is made even more acute by cost-of-living pressures.
As such, the Cyber Aware campaign, which launches prior to the peak Christmas shopping period, aims to ensure that citizens are empowered to shop safely and successfully online.

The key behaviours we aim to promote as part of the campaign are:

  • Protect your accounts:
Use three random word passwords and set up 2-step verification for your email
  • Check before you buy:
Research online retailers to check they're legitimate. Read feedback from people or organisations that you trust, such as consumer websites
  • Report suspicious activity:
Forward texts to 7726 
Forward suspicious emails to (report@phishing.gov.uk) 
Report websites via the NCSC at https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/about-this-website/report-scam-website
If you think you've been a victim of fraud, contact your bank immediately and report it to Action Fraud online at actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040
If you live in Scotland, all reports of fraud and any other financial crime should be reported to Police via 101.

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