When talking about online safety and security, ‘social engineering’ means the act of manipulating or tricking people into certain actions including divulging personal or financial information … a kind of confidence trick. Social engineering exploits human nature and often plays on victims’ willingness to be helpful, or please others. It is a factor in many […]

Webcam blackmail usually involves people being lured into taking off some or all of their clothes in front of their webcam, only to be told that you have been recorded and that the video will be posted online and/or shown to the victim’s contacts unless a fee is paid – usually a substantial sum of […]

These days, it is easy to use a smartphone or tablet to download a product or service and charge it to your phone bill. Children are especially attracted to games, apps and media such as video and songs, and are able to download these on their mobile devices with just a few clicks.

Smartphones and tablets can be used to pay for downloadable or other content, sometimes with the payment appearing on the phone bill at the end of the month rather than going to a card. In this way, mobile devices are effectively like credit cards, and so the same amount of caution needs to be applied […]

Smart TVs (also known as Connected TVs) integrate television with the internet. When connected to the internet, they enable you to search and find videos, movies, photos and other content on the web by interacting via your remote control – or with some models via your smartphone or tablet. Therefore you can search the internet, […]

Despite the frequent introduction by Microsoft of newer versions of its Windows operating system over the years, some business and home PC users are still using Windows XP, which was replaced back in 2007. However, Microsoft ceased support for XP in 2014 and therefore no longer issues updates, security patches, bug fixes and Microsoft Security Essentials […]

Contactless technology is becoming increasingly commonplace as a means of making payments or sending information. The process – enabled by a technology known as Near Field Communication (NFC) – works by means of a wireless chip containing the user’s payment card details, embedded in a mobile phone (identified by the symbol shown on this page) […]

Telephone banking fraud is a scam which is becoming increasingly commonplace. The fraudsters do not actually scam their victims online, but use the telephone to do so. Here’s how it works:

Copycat websites are those which offer services from government departments or local government, but are not the official site and charge an often substantial premium for those services, often with no tangible benefit to the customer. They achieve this by using website tools to achieve high positions in search engines such as Google, often ranking […]

As well as engaging with your child to educate and guide them through a safe digital life – and so that you fully understand the latest developments – it makes good sense to take advantage of the filters and controls which you can use to reduce the chance that they will come across inappropriate or […]