National Cyber Security Centre Takes Cyber Aware Campaign 'to Another Level'

The National Cyber Security Centre, which is part of GCHQ, is launching a major new campaign which aims to help keep people safe online. The push was developed in partnership with creative agency M&C Saatchi London.

The wide-reaching government Cyber Aware campaign, which will run across broadcast, online and out-of-home, with almost 2,000 billboard placements, aims to raise awareness of things we can all do to ensure that our email security is significantly better protected.

Opportunistic criminals are now taking advantage of more people using digital devices than ever before with scams that can lead to accounts being hacked. Last year saw a 161% increase in unauthorised access to personal information offences – including hacking.

The new campaign recommends that consumers and small businesses take their email security to another level by advising them to use passwords made up of three random words and enable two-step verification (2SV). This will help keep out anyone who should not have access to an account, by requiring a second step after the password is entered, such as a code texted to the account holder's phone.

The integrated push is brought to life through humorous scenarios in unexpected places to create memorability. We see an interesting mix of unique, yet approachable characters, that provide clear advice on how we can all make our email passwords harder to hack.

Campaign activity includes digital, radio, social, web and online advertising. Media planning is managed by Bountiful Cow and media buying is by OmniGov.

Nicola Hudson, director of policy and communications, National Cyber Security Centre, said: “Our main email account is the gateway to much of our personal information, from work to our interests and even finances. That’s why it’s so important to make sure it is protected.

“By choosing a separate password, made from three random words, and enabling two-step verification on your account, individuals can dramatically reduce their risk of falling victim to financial losses and the impact of personal data breaches.

“Our new Cyber Aware campaign is aimed at helping everyone boost their online security and I strongly encourage people to follow our advice to make life even harder for cyber criminals.”

Guy Bradbury, creative partner, M&C Saatchi London, added: “Updating our cyber security is not always top of our priority list, and it’s something many of us rarely remember to do, so our job was to create a campaign which made the message impossible to forget.

“To achieve that, we have created a Cyber Aware world that is visually distinctive, full of gentle humour, and all with the important clear calls to action on what we need to do to better protect ourselves.”