Charity fraud awareness & cyber security scheme

The government have recently updated their guidance to help protect charities from fraud. The guidance contains advice, regulatory alerts and links to other helpful websites to help charities to understand fraud and how to protect themselves against it.

In December 2017, Action Fraud opened a cyber-attack helpline. If you experience a live cyber-attack, this helpline will give you access to specialist advisors who can give advice in reporting the attack.

These reports are immediately sent to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB). The NFIB will assess whether there are any websites, bank accounts or phone numbers that can be closed down in order to prevent the cyber criminals from operating.

Updated charity fraud guidance: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/protect-your-charity-from-fraud

Action Fraud cyber-attack helpline: https://actionfraud.police.uk/24-7-live-cyber-reporting

Cyber security scheme for charities

The government have a Cyber Security Essentials scheme for charities. This can be used by trustees to improve their cyber-security knowledge and to test their charities’ resilience against the best-practice standards.

The National Cyber Security Centre is responsible for the UK’s cyber-security and has a dedicated Charity and Public Engagement team. After some feedback, they have simplified the Cyber Security Essentials scheme. This makes it easier to become certified if you are a beginner to understanding cyber-security.

The ‘Cyber Essentials’ certification addresses the most common internet based threats, considered to be:

• Hacking
• Phishing
• Password guessing

Take the test and become certified: https://www.cyberessentials.ncsc.gov.uk/getting-certified/

Disclaimer - All information in this post was correct at time of writing.