After being scammed, embarrassment can prevent people from getting the help they need, but in order to destigmatize the painful mistake, more people need to report incidents and understand that it happens to even the most technically savvy. 

Today’s guest is Rory Innes. Rory has spent his entire career in cybersecurity and has worked for leading global cybersecurity companies in a range of senior management positions. Rory spotted the huge gap in support for victims of cybercrime and online harm and created the Cyber Helpline to mobilize the cybersecurity community to step in and fill the gap. As CEO, Rory is responsible for the strategic, direction, performance, and operational effectiveness of the Cyber Helpline. Rory often provides comment and opinion for the press and has appeared on live TV and documentaries providing his expert opinion on cybercrime.

Show Notes:

• [1:10] - Rory shares what Cyber Helpline is and his motivation to start it up.

• [3:26] - There are different types of cybersecurity such as commercial issues and personal concerns.

• [4:31] - Now, Cyber Helpline sees an average of 2,000 reports a month.

• [5:53] - Cyber Helpline began as a UK only organization, but they are now looking to help globally.

• [7:11] - Rory shares the types of things reported and the things that have been surprising over the last five years.

• [8:35] - In many places across the world, Covid-19 had a huge impact on the economy and the rise of scams.

• [10:46] - Hacked social media accounts are really common and can be really detrimental to the people in your network.

• [12:00] - Investment scams are also very commonly seen and you may not see the problem for a while.

• [14:43] - Hypervigilance from the threat of cyberstalking makes things mentally draining, scary, and creates difficulty for them to be believed.

• [16:36] - Rory describes the process of investigating and helping a victim through a cyberstalking case.

• [19:50] - Misconceptions are created and then spread wide through crime stories, social media, and crime shows or movies.

• [22:46] - Does changing your password and wiping your devices really help?

• [24:24] - When it comes to cyberstalking, it is important to remember that stalkers are obsessed. If you remove the access, you don’t remove the obsession.

• [26:51] - The Cyber Helpline also helps educate the victim in how to spot signs of scams.

• [28:00] - The Cyber Helpline uses the Assistance Self-Help model.

• [31:30] - Service users are asked how this experience is impacting them.

• [32:59] - Mental health is the highest reported impact on victims, even more so than money.

• [35:31] - Mental health support is getting better, but is still not effective for many people who experience this.

• [37:32] - The demographics of the victims can tell a lot about the likelihood of them reporting something.

• [40:27] - Rory himself has been a victim of cybercrime and admits that he was very embarrassed by it at the time it happened.

• [43:41] - The hardest thing is when targeted children and teens don’t feel comfortable talking about it with their parents.

Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review. 

Links and Resources:

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• The Cyber Helpline