Individuals, businesses, and community groups across Scotland are invited to sign up to events happening during CyberScotland Week 2025, running from 24 February to 2 March.

The theme for the week, “Can’t hack it?!?”, focuses on simple, everyday actions that can enhance cyber resilience for individuals and organisations alike. There will be events running all week.

Now in its seventh year, CyberScotland Week is organised by the CyberScotland Partnership, a coalition of key stakeholders brought together by the Scottish Government’s Cyber Resilience Unit. The initiative aims to raise awareness of cyber security and equip people and organisations across Scotland with the tools they need to defend against ever-growing cyber threats.

We all face continuing threats from cyber criminals looking to exploit our dependency on the technology that underpins all aspects of modern life in our homes, workplaces and the services we use.

In the UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2024, it was found that half of businesses (50%) and around a third of charities (32%) had experienced some form of cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months.

That is why we all need to build our awareness of the risks and become more cyber resilient.

Everyday actions to stay safe online

CyberScotland Week encourages everyone to adopt simple practices recommended by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

For individuals, these include:

• Using strong, unique passwords for each site.
• Turning on two-factor authentication.
• Backing up data regularly and enabling automatic backups.
• Reporting phishing scams at work.
• Installing updates as soon as they are available.

For businesses and organisations, best practices include:

• Installing antivirus software.
• Preventing staff from downloading unapproved apps.
• Keeping IT equipment up to date through regular patching.
• Controlling the use of USB drives.
• Activating firewalls.