Introduction
Online criminals continue to attempt to steal, infiltrate and defraud – increasingly using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create more sophisticated scams.
So, we’re once again raising awareness of how we can all be cyber resilient at work and in our personal lives.
It’s important that we all stay alert to help foil fakers, hackers and malicious actors, who often use ‘phishing’ techniques as part of their scams – impersonating reputable organisations or individuals via emails, texts or calls to steal sensitive information such as passwords and financial details.
Every email should be considered a threat if you do not expect it or its contents.
- Phishing emails are often very well written and designed to look accurate, gain your trust and be ‘subject-specific’ to you
- Generally, they tell you to click a link, open an attachment, purchase something or make changes to account details – and if you don’t do this, there will be a negative consequence
- Do not automatically carry out these kinds of requests. If you feel they are genuine, you must investigate the sender in another way before acting – not by replying to the email, but by contacting them through a known, trusted method (e.g. telephone or direct chat) to confirm
- Check that the sending domain is genuine. For example, it might say ‘m1crosoft.com’ instead of ‘microsoft.com’ or the domain ends with ‘.uk’ (Ukrainian) instead of ‘.co.uk’ (British).
Remember, partner organisations are also at risk of the same phishing threat. If you receive an email from a partner or someone you know that is unusual, you must not automatically respond – check the email was intended and is not spreading from them to you.
The only people authorised to install software on your computer are East Dunbartonshire Council ICT colleagues.
If you are contacted by someone and asked to install software, run a program or provide remote access to your computer to carry out the install, DO NOT do it. Instead, call the IT Service Line immediately on 0141 578 8888 – who will advise on the next actions.
If ICT do contact you and you are unsure the person you are speaking to is from East Dunbartonshire Council, call the IT Service Line who can provide assurance and the ICT analyst will call you back.
If you receive any email to your work address which you think is suspicious, please DO NOT OPEN IT, but forward it to our spam email address – ukspam@fusemail.com
If you open an email and then believe it is suspicious, you must contact ICT IMMEDIATELY on the helpline 0141 578 8888.
For non-work related scam emails, screenshots or recordings, you can report these by emailing report@phishing.gov.uk
You can forward a scam text message to 7726.
If you receive a telephone call from someone claiming to be your bank and you think it could be a scam, you can check this by calling 159. This is a secure helpline from Stop Scams UK – you give the name of your bank and are directly connected to your bank’s customer service department.
If you have been a victim and you fear someone has gained access to your computer or systems like banking and email:
- Change your passwords right away
- Contact you bank as a matter of urgency
- Ensure the anti-virus protection is up to date on your computer
- Call Police Scotland on 101, who will provide further guidance.
For further advice, useful websites include Police Scotland advice scams and frauds, Gov.Uk Stop think fraud.campaign and Police Scoptland advice cybercrime
Thank you,
Jamie Robertson
Chief Finance Officer
