Explore
The Explore pathway is for everyone working in health and social care, irrespective of role. This pathway introduces the fundamental concepts of cyber security.
The Explore Pathway
Step 1 - Introducing Cyber Security
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Let's start by exploring what cyber security is. Although developed for councils, this short video (2m57s) provides a general overview of cyber security, explains some of the key cyber terms you might hear and looks at why cyber is so important in organisations: Link: What is cyber security? |
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| Why do you think it's important for health and social care staff to learn about cyber security? |
Step 2 - Common Cyber Attacks
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In order to protect ourselves against cyber threats, it's important to understand how and when attacks might occur. This short video (4m9s) runs through some of the common types of cyber attack: Link: What is a Cyberattack? |
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Step 3 - Becoming more Cyber Aware (New)
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| When was the last time you changed a password, enabled two-factor authentication, or updated a device? What prompted you to do it? |
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CyberScotland brings together advice and resources from trusted organisations to help individuals and organisations improve their cyber resilience. Explore the Cyber Aware guidance, which outlines six simple actions to help protect your accounts, devices, and data based on advice from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). |
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| Which of these actions do you already practise in your personal or professional life, and which ones could you start adopting. |
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| At the bottom of the page is a link to NCSC’s Individuals and families Action Plan for individuals & families, as well as for small organisations. Take a few minutes to generate your own Cyber Action Plan to see how you could be safer online. |
Step 4 - Creating Strong Passwords
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Creating strong passwords can be an effective way of protecting yourself against hacking threats from cyber criminals. But what is a strong password? And where might there be weaknesses in the passwords you are currently using? Have a look at this guidance from the NCSC which takes you through how to use passwords effectively to protect your data: |
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Review the following recommendations from the guidance and take action to follow any that are relevant to you:
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Step 5 - Cyber Attack Impact
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Unfortunately, despite preventative measures, cyber attacks do still occur. Whilst they have a serious and significant impact, they also help us to learn how to avoid similar attacks in future. This BBC article describes a cyber attack on NHS Dumfries and Galloway that took place in March 2024: Link: Hackers threaten to publish huge cache of NHS Scotland data |
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How do you think the patients whose data was leaked might have been impacted by this? What could this mean for how they interact with health and social care services going forwards? Consider how a similar attack could impact your own organisation or service. |
Step 6 - Test Your Cyber Knowledge (NEW)
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Now you have developed your awareness of cyber security, test your knowledge by completing this short quiz. Once you have worked through the questions, you can submit and then review your answers to look into any that were incorrect: |
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Work through this short quiz where you’ll be asked to determine whether email messages are genuine or attempts at phishing. Be sure to note down any advice and tips as you work through the questions: Link: Jigsaw | Phishing Quiz |
What Next?
You have now completed the Explore pathway.
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