Stay safe on social media

Social media is great way to connect with the world around you, but nobody wants to share their personal information and photos with complete strangers. Make sure that only your friends and family can see your photos, updates, and information by checking your account privacy settings, and only accepting friend/contact requests from people you know.

We also recommend that you don’t share any personal information in public (e.g., phone number, address), and think twice before you join in on a meme or comment on a post.

Classic posts to avoid are ones that get you to share your ‘celebrity name’ by combining your first pet’s name with your mother’s maiden name, for example. These are a clever way to find out possible answers to your bank security answers.

Stay safe online

Whether you’re checking your bank account, doing some shopping, or replying to emails, there are a few things to look out for to keep you and your device safe:

• Install anti-virus and anti-spyware software and keep it updated.
• Think before clinking on a link in an email – it could be a phishing scam. Do you know and trust the sender? Were you expecting to receive the email? Does the URL look legit?
• Use strong passwords (combination of letters, numbers, and characters) and change them regularly. Make sure you have different passwords for different sites too. This helps to limit damage control if one of them is compromised
• Only shop from secure websites. These will show a locked padlock or unbroken key in your browser, and its URL will begin with https://
• Never give your PIN, passwords, or private banking details over the phone or online – your bank will never ask for these
  
• Use web cam covers (available from the Community Safety Hub)

Advice on avoiding scams

Sometimes criminals target students and try to steal your personal information in sophisticated ways. They may pretend to be the Government, banks, the University, police, or other trusted organisations.

Don’t worry though, there are lots of tell-tale signs of a scam, plus plenty of support out there if you’re a victim of cybercrime. Find out more and stay scam savvy by visiting our dedicated ‘Advice on avoiding scams’ page.  

We’re here to help by sharing the signs to look out for if you think you’re being scammed, plus who to turn to if you have been. Together we can stamp out cybercrime. You can learn more about protecting yourself from scans by watching this video.