{"id":19326,"date":"2024-04-05T18:18:50","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T18:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/05\/whatsapp-tips-to-social-media-monitoring-the-online-security-advice-given-to-mps\/"},"modified":"2024-04-05T18:18:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T18:18:50","slug":"whatsapp-tips-to-social-media-monitoring-the-online-security-advice-given-to-mps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/05\/whatsapp-tips-to-social-media-monitoring-the-online-security-advice-given-to-mps\/","title":{"rendered":"WhatsApp tips to social media monitoring: The online security advice given to MPs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MP safety has long been a concern in Westminster but the issue is back under the spotlight after conservative MP William Wragg was this week caught up in a “phishing” scandal.<\/p>\n

The parliament security team insist it takes online safety and security extremely seriously, but MPs are facing cyber attacks that have become more sophisticated in recent years.<\/p>\n

They often take place via newer forms of communication, such as WhatsApp, which are harder for security services to monitor than email.<\/p>\n

How are MPs’ communications and devices monitored? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Parliament ultimately has limited oversight on the use of WhatsApp on MPs’ personal digital devices, which complicates matters.<\/p>\n

Members of parliament and their staff can opt to use a cyber security advisory service to help them lock down their personal devices and accounts.<\/p>\n

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\n William Wragg’s controversy has reignited conversations on MPs’ online security. Pic: PA
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Another opt-in service is from the parliamentary social media monitoring team, which can track MPs’ Twitter and Facebook profiles for serious threats.<\/p>\n

For those especially concerned with hacks and phishing attacks, parliament’s personal cyber advice service offers “hands on” guidance and invites MPs to bring phones, tablets and laptops in for a security check.<\/p>\n

What training are people in parliament given? <\/strong><\/p>\n

MPs are given a “top tips” booklet, written with input from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), with further advice sent in hard copy to all MP offices.<\/p>\n

They’re also given tailored security advice to help protect against phishing attacks, which tend to be broad attempts to get people to share sensitive information.<\/p>\n

Spear-phishing is a more bespoke approach, which sees cyber-fraudsters target an individual in a highly-personalised way, with the hope they’ll share something fairly compromising. This is the type of attack at the centre of Mr Wragg’s scandal<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
Wragg praised for ‘courageous’ apology<\/a>
Who is William Wragg?<\/a>
Podcast: Why do MPs never answer the question?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n


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Should William Wragg lose the whip?<\/span>
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In an email sent to MPs this week, staff were reminded they can register their personal accounts with the NCSC so they can be warned rapidly if there’s a suspicion or risk that they might be targeted.<\/p>\n

A parliamentary spokesperson said: “We are encouraging anyone affected who has concerns to contact the parliamentary security department.”<\/p>\n

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Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News<\/p>\n

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‘Avoid message requests from unknown accounts’<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2019, the NCSC issued guidance for MPs to help them keep safe online – which had an entire section dedicated to precautions to take when using messaging apps such as WhatsApp.<\/p>\n

See the advice below:<\/p>\n

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\n MPs were specifically warned about risks on WhatsApp in 2019. Pic: NCSC
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Online safety training labelled ‘basic’<\/strong><\/p>\n

One person in parliament told Sky News they were given an “online smarts” lesson when they joined.<\/p>\n

They also took part in a cyber security session via Zoom as part of their constituency training – though they said it was fairly “basic” and mostly dealt with password protection.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MP safety has long been a concern in Westminster but the issue is back under the spotlight after conservative MP William Wragg was this week caught up in a “phishing” scandal. The parliament security team insist it takes online safety and security extremely seriously, but MPs are facing cyber attacks that have become more sophisticated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/04\/768x432\/skynews-william-wragg-tory-mp_6511089.jpg?20240405112314","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[1268,3200,10933,1344,3729,2441,2291,19376,3197],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19328,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19326\/revisions\/19328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}