General

When we hear the words ‘Malware’ and ‘Viruses’ we perhaps think of large organisations and businesses as being main targets of this type of cyber-attack and putting measures in place to be better protected, but this is something affecting us all.

As more aspects of our lives now involve being online, malware and viruses are a fact of modern online life, so it’s not just a security concern for organisations and businesses.

Within our interconnected devices we are all storing large amounts of data from our photographs, emails, banking and other personal information which are private to us and which we want to protect.

So what is the first thing we should consider and which will assist us in protecting our devices from malware and viruses?

As well as backing up our data (NCSC’s guidance on how to do this), we should all be updating our devices and apps with the latest security updates, as some of these will also include improvements and new features.

In your devices and apps settings, this will allow you to either install updates manually or you might have the option of turning on automatic updates, if available, and this option is particularly useful as it means your device will install the updates automatically for you.

The following link to the NCSC Install the latest software and app updates, provides guidance for updating not only your mobile devices but also your smart devices such as Smart Watches, Ring Door Bells and Fitbit devices for example.

Download NCSC Protecting devices from viruses and malware infographic for additional guidance.

Information from Police Scotland Cybercrime Harm Prevention Team