Testing the level of cyber awareness within our authority

As part of our ongoing work to improve cyber awareness within the authority, our I.T department regularly carry out phishing exercises involving Ashford Borough Council employees and councillors.

With local authorities across the UK experiencing an average of 10,000 attempted cyber attacks daily, these exercises aim to test whether our internal 'Cyber Ninja' e-learning modules have been a success.

Phishing attacks make up 75% all of cyber attacks, with DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks being the next most common threat that specifically targets websites.

As a result, mitigation is naturally a high priority for our I.T team with some of our measures including 'Cybereason' End Point security, ransomware protection, regular patching of devices and software, enforcing multi-factor authentication and taking part in county wide emergency planning cyber exercises.

Residents and small business owners

If you are a resident or small business owner, being on top of cyber security doesn’t have to be a daunting challenge. Follow five simple steps from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) which covers backing up your data, malware protection, keeping your smartphone/tablet safe, protecting your passwords and how to avoid becoming a victim of phishing attacks.