Daily Safeguarding Update

‘Smishing’ reports increase by nearly 700%

Figures from software security company, Proofpoint, and Which? show an increase of nearly 700% of ‘smishing’ in the first six months of 2021 compared to the second half of 2020.
‘Smishing’ or text message scams often involve texts pretending to be from banks, delivery companies and phone networks asking for personal details.
This rise in these scams is likely due to the increase in online shopping since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since launching its own scam report tool in March, Which? has received over 9,000 reports – two-thirds of which involved calls and texts.
Which? has published an SMS best practice guide for businesses to help protect their customers from potential fraud, which has already been adopted by Barclays and Hermes.
For more information on other types of scams, check out our blog posts on common COVID scams and ‘whaling’.
Full story, here.

Apple has released a suite of updates for iOS, macOS and Apple Watch to fix a bug uncovered by researchers at Citizen Lab for ‘zero-click’ installs of Pegasus spyware.
‘Zero-click’ means that targeted users don’t have to do anything to be infected by the spyware.
The spyware allows for data and passwords to be stolen and for phone cameras and microphones to be activated.
Citizen Lab highlighted the potential for the bug to be exploited to allow governments to access phones of journalists, lawyers, and activists.
Apple released these updates on the 13^th of September and urges everyone with an iPhone, iMac, or Apple Watch to install the patch as soon as possible.
Full story, here.

A new global survey by Bath University, involving 10,000 people aged 16 to 25, illustrates deep anxiety among young people about climate change.
Nearly 60% of those surveyed reported feeling very or extremely worried about climate change, with more than 45% claiming the worry affects their daily lives.
Three-quarters claimed that the future was frightening and over half reported thinking that humanity was doomed.
The authors of the report highlighted that climate anxiety was greatest in nations where government climate policies were weakest and that failure from legislation may be defined as a human rights violation.
UK responses in the survey reported low levels (28%) of trust in governments and showed that 65% of young people believe that the government is failing them.
Full story, here.

Gwent police in Wales are dealing with daily calls from families and friends who fear a loved one may be suicidal and do not know where to turn.
The number of 999 and 101 calls to Gwent police has increased by a third between January and July with more than half of the calls relating to mental health.
The Gwent police force experienced a 34% increase in calls to its control room with 24,000 people calling 101 and 8,000 dialling 999 for help in July alone.
This follows the appointment of a social worker specialising in safeguarding children and young people to Gwent police in 2019 to help deal with young victims, witnesses, and perpetrators.
The mental health team in Gwent work alongside operators in the control room to help cope with the increasing number of calls for help.
For tips on discussing suicide with young people, check out our blog post.
Full story, here.