The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD has today (01 October) launched the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Cyber Security Month in cooperation with An Garda Síochána. The campaign will convey information and tips on the importance of establishing good practices online through two main themes:
For the first theme, ‘Digital Skills’, awareness material will inform the general public, businesses and employees on protecting their data online and securing their home office, especially timely given the unprecedented numbers of people working from home.
Awareness material on the second theme, ‘Cyber Scams’, will provide insights on current cyber threats to help the general public to minimise risks, with a focus on phishing and spotting online scams. The key message encourages users to have a heightened awareness of cyber scams when they are online.
Speaking today, Minister Ryan said:
“As we are now working from home more than ever, people and businesses are being presented with a set of cyber challenges on a scale not ever seen before. Cyber security month is a terrific way to promote knowledge and available tools amongst Irish citizens and organisations to ensure they have the necessary awareness to protect themselves against cyber-related threats.”
Over the course of the month, the NCSC will be putting out awareness-raising tips on the following topics:
Securing your home office
- Use encryption to secure data
- Secure your home router by changing the default password
Spotting online scams
- Be wary of generic impersonal greetings in e-mails
- Look out for requests to send personal details online, don’t send them!
Passwords
- Think passphrase instead of a password
- Use multifactor authentication (MFA) on your email and social media accounts
The NCSC will also take part in a webinar on 5G Deployment and Security in Ireland hosted by Cyber Ireland on the 14th of October. The webinar will involve an exciting panel to discuss advantages of 5G and the need for early adoption in Ireland, and the security challenges around the deployment of 5G.
