You may have already encountered fake phone calls or fake emails from cyber criminals for example pretending to be your internet company.
We don’t want you to be tricked by anyone contacting you and pretending to be from HTB.
If you are not sure of the legitimacy of the request, do not give any personal details, do not respond to the email and do not click on any Website link (even if it looks legitimate). Instead, start a new browser session and go to www.htb.co.uk our legitimate website and select the contact us section.
We want you to be as safe as possible while using our services and we have security measures in place to protect your data on our systems.
Here are some steps you can take to protect yourself and your devices:
You should consider using modern products which are automatically kept updated.
As a rule of thumb, the older software is, the less secure it is.
Good software suppliers know this and will provide automatic updates to fix security problems as they are discovered.
Malicious Software – “Malware”
“Computer virus”, “ransomware”, “keyloggers”, “trojans”, “wipers” – these are examples of malware which can do harm to your systems and information. There are a wide variety of products from established suppliers, some free and some already built in (Windows Defender). You should consider installing a reputable anti-malware product and using it in line with the supplier’s guidelines.
Your login details are what tell a system, who is using it and what they are allowed to do.
You should keep login details safely stored and not share them.
The number of logins and passwords each of us has to remember seems to forever grow, password management software can help with this problem.
Modern free web browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are continually being updated to fix security problems as they are found.
Ensure you run the latest updated version of you chosen browser.
Select a web browser which can be set to automatically download and install updates to itself and fix security problems that are discovered.
Updates will often introduce new features and improve performance as well as improve security.
Note:
Similar to the browser, Operating Systems for your PC, Tablet and smartphones are continually being updated to fix security problems.
Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux are probably the most widely known desktop/laptop Operating systems.
Others are Android and IOS for smartphones and tablets.
As software companies bring out new versions of their products they stop fixing problems with older versions.
Taking Microsoft as an example:
If you are using an old unsupported operating system version, then your security maybe at risk.
All computer programs (browsers and operating systems included) contain some mistakes – ‘bugs’. Some of these can be used to break or bypass the security of the computer, tablet or smartphone. As these problems come to light the program writers provide security updates to fix the problems.
Search for the software suppliers guidance on how to ensure that automatic updates are turned on to keep it up to date with security fixes.
Sometimes updates aren’t always automatically applied so it is always good to know where to check for updates.
To find out more about how to keep yourself, your information and your devices secure, please take a look at the following websites:
HTB implements rigorous security controls to protect our customers’, partners’ and employees’ data and/or information.
HTB continually monitors and updates its security defences to protect the firm’s systems and data against the latest cyber threats.
HTB will never ask you for your Pin or password.