Cyber Attacks and Scams

Probus Meeting with the Theme Cyber attacks and Scams

The president Franklin Goodwin opened. the meeting wearing his police helmet and greeting the members by saying “morning all “

31 members were in attendance with 12 apologies and business reports from Committee members  followed.

Roy Plume reported for Jerry Sullivan who was not present today to say that the farm walk to Highfields farm has been arranged for Wednesday, the 1st of July but when he is at the next meeting, Jerry will report further Details are on the website under Social Programme

Welfare secretary Joe Hoyles reported that Brian Johnston had been taken ill but was now recovering and that Bob Bennion has had a fall and possibly broken his hip, but he will keep in contact with both and report further

The president thanked the officers for their reports and then introduced the speaker for today, who was Andy Kevan from Cheshire police who was going to speak about the dangers of cyber crime

Detective constable Kevan outlined various cyber crimes that can take place online by criminals using the computer that you keep in your pocket all the time and that now it is no longer a mobile phone but a mobile computer which the criminals can access to commit crimes.

There are criminals who are all the time using emails, phone calls and text messages, social media, remote access , on line dating apps and online shopping to collect our personal data.

He also suggested methods by which we could keep our self safe online and he also distributed leaflets from Cheshire Constabulary unit on how to spot the signs of cyber fraud and how to report it, if you are ever a victim of cyber fraud. He explained the dangers of not keeping your password safe and recommended two step activation and using three random word passwords.

The recent expansion of uses of AI in the cyber world eg Grok is making it even more dangerous.

The presentation emphasised that we all must STOP, THINK and PROTECT ourselves from cyber fraud,

Andy K answered a number of questions from members

The President thanked detective constable Andy Kevan for his excellent ,if at times alarming,presentation.

The President gave details of the next meeting , thanked all members present for attending and closed the meeting