Minister's warnings on security in Lancashire

Lancashire MP and Government minister Ben Wallace is calling on county residents to be cyber and security aware - especially if you work in defence or other security sensitive industries.

He urged everyone to play their part in keeping the country safe both at work, home and play, stressing that in 2017 there are real threats from criminals, terrorists and hostile states.

His new year alert came after, in his role as security minister, he cautioned that terrorist group Isis aspires to use chemical weapons on British soil. He said: “The overall issue is there is a terrorist threat. Individuals can contribute to our collective security by being more aware.”

Defence industries were obvious targets and cyber crime, was, he said, a way to access key information. “What we see is a big amount of growth in invoice or security fraud. Be cyber aware and be aware in your environment and think twice. If you work for BAE and you get a strange email report it to your IT security, question it and don’t think it doesn’t apply to you.”

Mr Wallace urged members of the public to contact the police with any suspicions, report fraud to ActionFraud UK or call the antiterrorism hotline on 0800 789321 and check out the cyberaware.gov.uk website. He warned lots of businesses were “being taken for lots of money” because bogus emails had been opened.