Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the incidence of cyber-fraud; and by what means she plans to advise the public of the steps to take to protect themselves against such fraud.

In February this year the Government launched the Joint Fraud Taskforce, a partnership of government, law enforcement and the banks to collectively tackle fraud. The Taskforce is looking at new ways to ensure individuals have the tools and knowledge to protect themselves from fraudsters. A Joint Fraud Taskforce partner, Financial Fraud Action UK, recently launched a nation-wide fraud prevention campaign ‘Take 5’ which advises that individuals take five minutes to consider what they are being asked to do, especially if being pressured to take an unusual course of action such as transferring funds to an unknown individual.

The Government’s Cyber Aware campaign aims to help small business and individuals protect themselves from cyber criminals by adopting simple secure online behaviours such as having a strong password and always downloading the latest software updates. Cyber Aware works with a range of public and private sector partners to embed cyber security advice into a range of every day touch points, including Get Safe Online, whose remit is to help individuals and small businesses safeguard themselves against fraud and other online data threats.

The Home Office has also invested in new IT for the Action Fraud / National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) capability. Benefits of the new system will include an improved reporting system and better information for victims as well as more disseminations of crime packages to forces, and better identification of vulnerable victims.