Water scarcity alert from SEPA July 2023
Climate change is likely to bring more uncertainty and may exert pressure in areas that have not yet experienced water scarcity. If dry conditions persist across Scotland for a period of time, there becomes an urgency to act to protect water resources for critical activities that support our communities.?
SEPA are responsible for the forecast, monitoring and report of the situation facing Scotland's water resources and produces a regular report during the summer months. Reports are published weekly.
CYBERBYTE APRIL 2023
Can your recycled devices expose your personal data?
Our devices, especially our smartphones - contain more work, personal and financial data than ever before. If you are selling, giving away, or trading in your smartphone (or other device), you should erase all of this personal data so the information stored on the device/s doesn't fall into the wrong hands. This can result in identity theft and fraud, unauthorised sharing of intellectual property and trade secrets to individual and corporate embarrassment. If you are changing devices like this, refer to the manufacturer's website (or search online) to find out how to erase your data from your device/s and reset it - often called a 'factory reset'. Doing a factory reset will bring the device back to its’ original settings when initially purchased, removing all your personal data.* Before you erase any of your data or move towards a factory reset on your device, there are a number of checks you should attend to.
These checks include;
• Make sure you have a backup copy of all the personal data that you want to keep. • If you use your device to access online services (such as banking, shopping, email or social media), you might be logging into these services without entering your password each time. If this is the case, make sure you know which accounts you access (and the logins and passwords for each of these accounts) before you erase your data.
• If you use your device to control any of your 'smart' devices around the house (such as security cameras or thermostats), you'll no longer be able to manage them using your phone. Again, make sure you're able to manage them using a different device, before you erase your data.
• If you use your device to verify your online accounts (for example, by confirming SMS codes, Authentication app), you'll need to make sure this works on another device. Make sure you do this (and check that it works) before you erase the data on the device that you're selling/giving away.
*A determined expert - using specialist tools - may still be able to recover the data on a device. If you really need to ensure the data can't ever be recovered, refer to Secure sanitisation of storage media - NCSC.GOV.UK
Information from Police Scotland Cybercrime Harm Prevention Team PPCWCyberHarmPrevention@scotland.police.uk All information correct at time of distribution. 28/04/2023
