A digital safety event was held at Barclays Ely branch on Friday 17th November, aimed at helping people to understand how they can better protect themselves when going on line and to raise awareness of the different kind of scams currently operating.
Joining the audience of people from Ely and surrounding areas was Lucy Frazer, MP for South East Cambridgeshire, who listened to a presentation given by Barclays Digital Eagle, James Gilbert, on how people can protect themselves and improve their digital vulnerability and scam awareness.
Lucy Frazer MP for South East Cambridgeshire, said: “I was very pleased to support this initiative which was open to customers and non-customers. In this day and age, we need to take as much care about our digital safety as we do about our physical safety. This event is a great example of how corporations who have spent time and money understanding the nature of the threat can help the public know how better to protect ourselves. This is in all our interests and I am grateful to Barclays in Ely for creating this opportunity to encourage us to address our digital safety.”
Jason Sadler, Branch Manager, Barclays Ely branch, said: “As more and more of us do everything online, cyber-crime is becoming more common and sophisticated. I would encourage everybody to learn more about keeping safe online whether for themselves, their relatives or friends.”
Following the event, Lucy Frazer MP, raised the issue of the challenges we face around the increase in online crime in Home Office Questions, at the House of Commons, on Monday 20th November. Lucy highlighted Barclays in Ely's endeavours to raise awareness of digital safety through its recent workshop event and asked the Minister of State for Security at the Home Office, Ben Wallace, what the government is doing to tackle online crime.
In response to her question the Minister said that the government is working closely with banks and the Joint Fraud Taskforce to come up with joint responses to the problems that need to be tackled. He also acknowledged Barclay’s efforts in this area saying “Barclays have done an extremely good job with its latest campaign.”
Barclays has launched a new digital safety advertising campaign, reminding everyone to look out for ways to keep themselves safe when shopping online this Christmas. The 30 second TV advertisement is available online at https://youtu.be/YhQzDafPSWI.