Police urge Falkirk residents to heed CyberScotland's online safety warning for a happy and secure 2023

The force has issued a link to the DIGI Ken adverts, which aim to achieve the CyberScotland partnership’s objective of improving cyber security and resilience across the entire countrty.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Weak passwords can be hacked in seconds. Don't let that happen to yours, make your passwords stronger and longer. Use three random words... the dafter the better.”

CyberScotland’s DIGI Ken adverts raise awareness of steps users can take to ensure they stay secure online.

They can do this by choosing strong passwords consisting of three random words, turning on two-step verification and updating their devices.

A CyberScotland spokesperson said: “There are simple actions you can take to keep yourself, your family and your business secure. Passwords are an important step to help keep our accounts secure online.

"Your e-mail is where you keep your most personal and financial information. If a cyber criminal accesses your email, they could access your other online accounts using the 'forgot password' feature, which often sends you an e-mail, or access personal or business information and use this to scam you or people you know.

"Three random words can be remembered much more easily than complex characters and symbols, but importantly it can increase the length of your password making it harder for criminals to crack.

“Make yours strong, longer and more memorable by combining 3 random words that you can remember.

"Cyber criminals exploit weaknesses in software and apps to get your information. Installing the latest software updates is a quick and effective way to secure your devices. Think of update reminders as an alarm telling you to act.

“Two-step verification helps protect you with a second layer of security that checks it’s really you logging in. It provides twice the protection so even if cyber criminals have your password, they can’t access your accounts –think of it as a double lock for your data.

“If two-step verification is available for an account, the option to switch it on is usually found in the security settings for the account. It may also be called two-factor authentication (2FA) or multi-factor authentication (MFA).”

Visit the website to view the Digi Ken videos.