“Cyber crime is happening here right now”

Dyfed Powys Police has launched a week of action to prevent local people and business from being victims of cyber crime.

The Cyber Crime Week of Action has been launched to respond on a major scale to the most significant cyber-crime threats.

It comes as a growing number of criminals use the internet and computers to disrupt local IT infrastructure, steal or compromise the integrity of private data, commit fraud, steal people’s identities or to abuse vulnerable people.

Dyfed Powys Police’s specialist Digital and Cyber Crime Unit (DCCU) and key partner Get Safe Online are focussing on the cyber-crime threats affecting people and businesses within the area.

Detective Sergeant Rob Gravelle, of the DCCU, said: “Cyber-crime is not something that only happens in big cities. It is happening in Dyfed Powys right now and is an increasing problem. The DCCU is a specialist team at Dyfed Powys Police brought together to reduce cyber and cyber-enabled crime. We are a busy unit investigating all manner of digital or cyber-crime ranging from online fraud to child sexual exploitation.

“We are taking part in this Cyber Crime Week of Action to reduce the risk of people becoming victims of cyber-crime by offering them guidance on how to stay safe online and how to report an incident if someone is a victim of cyber-crime.”

This week, the specialist detectives, high tech forensic investigators, analysts and researchers that form the DCCU will be raising awareness of cyber-crime and working to ensure people have the knowledge and confidence to protect themselves from cyber-crime within the force area.

To launch the week of action, a series of special assemblies took place at comprehensive schools throughout the force area to highlight to teenagers the dangers of ‘sexting’.

There will be a focus on key cyber-crime issues including online child sexual exploitation, cyber bullying, revenge porn and online fraud through social media as well as training for police officers on investigating cyber-crime.

Top tips for online safety:

• Delete suspicious emails and social media messages without clicking on links
• Install up-to-date antivirus security software
• Keep your computer up-to-date with the latest software patches and updates
• Be security-conscious on social media sites: log out when you’re done and don’t connect to people you don’t know
• Regularly change and use strong passwords and don’t share them with anyone
• Be careful about what you share online, don’t give away more personal information than you need to on social media sites and back up important files and media content to safe and secure storage solutions i.e. external hard drive/ trusted cloud storage.

To report suspected offences contact Action Fraud www.actionfraud.police.uk or call police on 101. Alternatively, for more information visitwww.cyberstreetwise.com and Get Safe Online www.getsafeonline.org.