Govt urges people to get random in GCHQ ‘Cyber aware’ campaign

National Cyber Security Centre, part of Government Communications Headquarters, has released the latest part of a campaign by M&C Saatchi London to push people to be safer online.

“Cyber aware” stresses the importance of email security now that more people are using digital devices. 

This part of the campaign urges consumers and businesses to use three random words to make up their password, ensuring they are “harder to hack, and even easier to remember”.

Two humorous spots visualise three random words to create unexpected scenarios bound to stick in the viewer’s mind, from taking a shark for a stroll through a forest to trekking across the moon on a giant snail.

The surreal films, directed by Luc Schurgers at HunkyDory Films with the help of Søren Birk and Jonathan Durgan at M&C Saatchi London, will be running across digital, radio and social, with media planning handled by Bountiful Cow and media buying by OmniGov.

The first spot in the “Cyber aware” campaign encouraged people to use two-step verification to make their emails more secure and depicted a boxer growing another pair of arms to have “twice the protection”.

Last year saw a 161% increase in unauthorised access to personal information offences, including hacking, so “Cyber aware” is packing a punch with 2,000 billboard placements and the use of other channels to call attention to online danger.

“Securing your email account is vital for staying safe online, as it is the gateway to so much of our personal information, from work life to finances, and even to our other accounts,” Alastair C, deputy director for strategic communications at the National Cyber Security Centre, explained.

“By creating a strong password using three random words, and enabling two-step verification on your account, individuals can significantly reduce the chances of their email being compromised.

“This new campaign delivers a serious message in a distinctive and memorable way, urging everyone to follow the ‘Cyber aware’ advice to make life even harder for criminals.”

Guy Bradbury, creative partner at M&C Saatchi London, added: “Changing your email password, to protect yourself from cyber-attacks, is not always top of the list of things to do. So, from a creative perspective we had to do two things to encourage people to change behaviour.

“Firstly, we had to give people a simple solution. Then secondly, we had to make the solution impossible to forget, visually reminding people of the behaviour we want them to adopt.”