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As IT professionals, we have an obligation to provide safe and secure internet to all those who may use it within your organisation. As part of this obligation, internal training goes a long way. Go out into the main office and ask someone if they know what phishing is?  What was the response?

Providing training to staff is the first step towards making your workplace that little bit safer, by making people aware of the risks and the do’s and don’ts of the internet.

Let’s take one example – Phishing

Phishing is the fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

What to look out for?

• Poor English/grammatical errors
  • One of the biggest tell-tale signs is the structure of the email
• Who is the email addressed to?
  • Phishing emails tend to have generic titles for example Dear Sir / Madam, Dear Email@email.co.uk
• Is the offer too good to be true?
  • Click this link to win £10000 pounds. Your long-lost relative has left you £40000, I just need your bank information

Sounds simple doesn’t it? But you will be surprised how many slip though the net.

Let’s take one more example – Online Banking
Something we take for granted, having access to your bank anywhere anytime. This level of freedom comes with risk:

• Internet connection- when you’re at a coffee shop, do you connect to their public wi-fi?
  • Snoopers can be looking at the traffic coming from your device and steal your personal data
  • Recommendation: Use a VPN on your mobile device or use your mobile data network.
• Public computers/work computers – when using your online banking websites.
  • Do you click remember my username/password? This means that the next person to use that device maybe able to see your information
  • Recommendation:Use an in-private browser, or incognito mode or click ‘Do not Remember username and password’

The above is just a few examples of how to stay safe online, whether it’s checking your emails or checking your bank balance.

For more information visit https://www.getsafeonline.org/ where you’ll find all the information you need.

Find out more about the Safer internet Day here: https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/2019

By Adam Goldsmith – MBCS

Empowering Women Course is of huge importance to me for a number of reasons:  it helped me to build a strong understanding of my abilities and strengths, work through my personal barriers in a supportive environment and start to look ahead, plan my future self.

During the 3-day course I went on a roller-coaster of activities that were cleverly designed and carried out by our talented course facilitators and allowed me and my fellow women to take a step back and evaluate key aspects of our careers and personal goals, learn techniques on how to deal with challenges that may prevent us from taking that brave next step.

The group activities were reinforced by 1:1 tuition from an experienced coach who worked with me on the specific challenges and together we created a plan of actions that will allow me to achieve the goals I set. This is an incredible opportunity to work with a trained professional on the areas of future development underpinned by a practical advice, which completes the whole journey of personal discovery.

Having said all that, I cannot underestimate the value of the support network we created as a group of professional and strong women who are dealing with their challenges together. We worked through some tough dilemmas and personal issues that bonded us together and I now have a group of amazing women, friends that I can call for help and advice should I need them.

The help and advice given during these sessions provided me the incredible insight into my work and personal life to allow me to be truly empowered.

Since attending the course and graduation I have been promoted within my organisation and I feel empowered to grow our internal talent, so I am passing the opportunities that have been given to me to my colleagues.

By Tanya Last