Police Staff Week of Celebration and Recognition - Meet Cybercrime and Fraud Coordinator James Squire

“When I speak to a room of 20 people, if one of them goes away and changes their passwords, downloads two-factor authentication or is that little bit more suspicious, then I consider it a good day’s work.”

This week marks the second Police Staff Week of Celebration and Recognition.

The week offers a valuable opportunity to shed a spotlight on police staff achievements and offer recognition. Each day this week we will focus on a different member of police staff. Today we look at Cybercrime and Fraud Coordinator James Squire.  

When James is asked why he got into policing, like many people he “wanted to catch badies”.

Unfortunately, the reality is the vast majority of offenders are from outside the country and there’s very little chance of ever catching them, so James does the next best thing.

His role is to work with people who have been victims of cyber crime to stop them becoming a repeat victim (something that is not unusual) and with the public and businesses to prevent them becoming victims.

“We do tend to carry quite a gloomy message with us – ‘be suspicious of everyone who emails or calls you’. But that’s the reality of the world we’re living in, and criminals are constantly adapting and changing their tactics; our job is to try and stay one step ahead of them.

“In policing it is rare to be able to be proactive in preventing crime. The job is extremely empowering. I could probably go somewhere else and earn more, but I don’t think I’d get the satisfaction of being able to make a difference.”

So, what are James’ top tips to help stop you from getting scammed?

1. Have separate email passwords that you don’t use anywhere else in case your passwords are breached. If criminals access your email they can reset all your other account passwords. https://tinyurl.com/WarksCyberAdvice1
2. Use strong passwords on all your accounts. Use ThreeRandomWords to create a strong password. https://tinyurl.com/WarksCyberAdvice2
3. Turn on two step verification to lock out criminal that may already have your password. https://tinyurl.com/WarksCyberAdvice3
4. Backup, backup, backup in case it all goes wrong. If you’ve only got one copy of your data and files you have one single point of failure. Physical and cloud backups mean these are retrievable if you are hacked. https://tinyurl.com/WarksCyberAdvice4
5. Always make sure you keep your devices and software up to date to remove vulnerabilities that can be exploited by criminals. https://tinyurl.com/WarksCyberAdvice5
6. Don’t log into accounts by clicking on links in emails. Always log in through an organisation’s website.

“And most of all, be suspicious!”