Don’t open attachments on emails where you don’t recognise the sender. Often the emails will look like they come from “Paypal,” “Ebay” and other known sources. If you are in doubt, delete the email and go to the known website and view the message there.

Don’t take financial instruction from email. There has been an increase in emails seemingly from a business like Farley & Thompson asking for payments to be made to an account.

Don’t click on suspicious files in any email. If in doubt, call the sender to ensure the email is valid.

Make sure you are using a modern browser (Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari)  and make sure it is up to date.

Ensure you are running anti-virus and this is kept updated.

Please make sure all your devices are running anti-virus.

Please make sure you have run your operating system updates.

Keep your devices clean.

Only install software from trusted sources and don’t leave trial or demo software installed.

Make sure that you are using complex passwords that are a random mix of letters, numbers and characters. Use different passwords for different accounts and change them regularly.

Your bank will never email you asking for your pin or password.

Watch out for emails with poor grammar or inaccurate spellings.

Be wary of emails with deadlines or threats to cut off your account. Panic is a method cyber criminals use to get you login to fake sites or provide sensitive information.