EVERYONE needs to take responsibility for themselves to prevent becoming a victim of cyber crime.

This was the message delivered by Laura Cowie, cyber protect officer for Devon and Cornwall Police, at a meeting of Launceston Community Network Panel on Monday, January 22.

Laura said: “The police can’t solve every single instance of cyber crime. The thinking now is everyone needs to take responsibility for themselves.”

Laura works in a unit of five people that feeds into the regional cyber crime unit.

She explained cyber crime is classed by government as ‘tier one’ threat — in the same bracket as terrorism.

Her unit works on ‘pursue, prevent, prepare and protect’, and she tries to be proactive by going to as many groups and events as possible to deliver a presentation to inform people of cyber crime and how they can prevent being a victim.

During her presentation there was a slide showing how in 2015, the population was 7.2-billion, and how they had 25-billion devices that connect to the internet. Looking at the 2020 forecast, the number of devices looks set to double — 50-billion for the expected 7.6-billion population.

Laura said: “You can lock your house from your phone, switch your washing machine on from the internet. Driverless cars are going to be the future. A lot of new technology but a lot of security implications we have got to think about as well.”

In Q1 of 2017, in Devon and Cornwall, £1,043,062 was lost to cyber crime. Laura added: “A lot of people who are victims of cyber crime don’t think they need to report it. I would urge you to report if you become a victim.”

Anyone who does report a cyber crime to Devon and Cornwall Police will be put through to Action Fraud — the UK’s national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre.

Laura explained: “These cyber attacks could generate from anywhere in the world. The intelligence officers at Action Fraud will be able to find links.”

In December there were 565 reports in the Devon and Cornwall area — Action Fraud supplies the statistics to Devon and Cornwall Police.

Laura added: “GCHQ says 80% of all cyber crime is preventable.”

Cyber crime is a term that covers all sorts of different offences, such as phishing, viruses, fraud, extortion, revenge porn, and dating/romance fraud — just some of the examples.

Computer service fraud is another. Laura said: “That’s your Microsoft calls, calls from BT, telling you your computer’s broken, and it’s not.

“We had quite a big case in our area, somebody lost nearly £13,000 to ‘Microsoft’ because their computer ‘was broken’.”

Another common scam people fall for are emails purporting to be from HMRC, asking people to click a link and fill in details to claim a ‘tax return’. “You have got to watch out for these types of frauds. These emails and links to the website will look very, very real,” Laura said.

Scams can also be sent through text messages.

Laura added: “We have had reports of the police phoning individuals saying your money is unsafe, you need to move it to a safe account. Devon and Cornwall Police will never tell you to move money into an account.”

Laura’s other advice included being mindful of passwords for online accounts — do not use the same password for accounts, and a suggestion that passwords are 15 characters long, with made-up words not in the dictionary.

She also said people should be wary of social media and not accept requests from ‘friends’ that they do not really know.

She added that being member of a ‘closed group’ on Facebook could give members access to more of the member’s personal information.

PC Steve Stoppard, part of the policing team for Launceston town, said: “Some of our more older residents have been targeted for the online romance scams. It’s took relatives, friends or even grandkids to identify that’s happening.

“Sometimes people are so far involved they are engrossed in it. You need to be our eyes and ears as well. Even if they don’t want help, tell us and we can do something.”

Laura added: “People don’t want to admit they have become a victim. They are embarrassed, but we see it all the time.”

Last week (January 22 to 26) was Take 5 to Stop Fraud week, one of the organisations Laura signposted people to for resources and information. Others were ‘Responsible for Information’ and ‘Get Safe Online’.

For more information, visit @DC_CyberProtect on Twitter.