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Aviva’s research highlights once more the cyber challenge we’re facing, and the importance of creating awareness of it. Taking advantage of vulnerabilities is a fraudster’s bread and butter, and a gap in knowledge about how to protect ourselves online allows them to exploit the human interest factor, and dupe consumers into revealing their personal details by posing as a bank or supplier on email.

Taking a proactive approach when it comes to security is just as much the responsibility for the consumer as it is for organisations. To combat these types of attacks, consumers should always report emails to their banking provider. No legitimate organisation will ask for security or banking details so consumers need to be suspicious of any email that requests this information. It’s also important for consumers to use a password manager to generate and manage secure passwords or use the built in password manager in iOS or OSX. The UK Government is working on the Cyber-Aware initiative in this space which will provide guidance for consumers and businesses but how wide reaching or successful the campaign will be remains to be seen.