Be safe on the Internet

30-11-2016

More and more smartphones are being attacked by cyber criminals. Therefore, the Agency for Digitisation and the Danish Bankers' Association have launched a new campaign to give Danes tips and digital guidance on how to protect themselves and their data on the Internet. For example, two out of three Danes don’t think to take back-up copies of their smartphones, and this can have serious consequences.

Most people go around with a smartphone in their pocket, but only few protect the content of their phone against attack from cyber criminals and loss of personal digital information.

According to the Agency for Digitisation and the Danish Bankers' Association, more and more Danish smartphones are being attacked by cyber criminals. Through a joint campaign, the two organisations will now make sure that Danes know how to protect themselves against cyber threats.

The five central tips the campaign will bring to Danes are listed below.

 

Five tips to protect data, e.g. on your smartphone

  1. Don’t click on a link in a text message or email that wasn’t solicited. A bank or a public authority will never ask for sensitive personal data via a link in a text message or email
  2. Activate two-step confirmation for digital services such as Facebook and Gmail.
  3. Always use more characters in your passwords than the minimum requirement, change your passwords regularly, and have different passwords for different accounts. Use special characters, capital letters and numbers in different positions in your password, not just at the start and end.
  4. Remember to backup smartphone data regularly.
  5. Upgrade your telephone operating system regularly.

One of the tips is to backup smartphone data.

72 pct. of Danes don’t take a regular backup of data on their smartphone. A backup copy can be crucial to protect sensitive personal data.

“You can protect yourself by taking regular backup copies so that you can restore pictures, documents and other personal digital property. This is vital, if your mobile phone, tablet or computer is taken over by IT criminals who then demand a ransom to release the data,” said Rikke Hougaard Zeberg, Deputy Director-General at the Agency for Digitisation.

The campaign was launched on Sunday 20 November 2016 and it includes a Facebook video, three do-it-yourself YouTube videos, and an interactive test.

Watch the Facebook video here (danish version)