Learning English

Image: Getty

INTRODUCTION

Have you received a scam text or email? Do you know how to keep information safe at work? There have been lots of stories about cyber crime in the news. But what can we do to keep cyber safe? In this episode, Pippa and Phil talk about the threat of cyber crime at work, with Joe Tidy, BBC journalist who reports on cyber crime. 

TRANSCRIPT

Phil
Do you know how to keep information safe at work?

Joe Tidy
I cannot cover every single cyber attack that takes place. There are just too many. Every day there seems to be some sort of data breach somewhere.

Pippa
Today we'll be talking about cyber security and how hackers can cause chaos for businesses.

Phil
Hello and welcome to Learning English for Work. I'm Phil.

Pippa
And I'm Pippa. Find a transcript for this episode to read along on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Phil
Pippa, have you ever been targeted by a scam email or text?

Pippa
Yes, I have. I don't really get too many scam emails. I think maybe they just go into my junk folder, but I get quite a lot of texts from people I don't know saying that they're a certain business, or I get phone calls from people pretending to be my bank or something like that, which is a bit scary, really.

Phil
Yeah. No, I get the same. Lots of notifications, lots of, like, text messages that are usually telling me to do something or with a link to click on, and I can usually tell that they're that they're not real, but sometimes it can be hard.

Pippa
Mhm. Yeah. Trying to protect ourselves and the companies we work for from cyber attacks is really stressful. So, to help, I spoke to BBC journalist Joe Tidy.

Joe Tidy
My name is Joe Tidy and I’m the BBC's cyber correspondent. So, I report on everything to do with sort of like the dark side of the internet, really. So cyber crime, hacking, digital security, data protection and potential harms and safety online.

Phil
OK, so Joe investigates and tells stories about lots of the dangers in the online world.

Pippa
Exactly, and today we're interested in cyber security. So, what is cyber security?

Joe Tidy
All it means is that you're trying to protect the security of the information that you hold. So that could be your own personal information. So, things about you that you don't want criminals to know, or the public to know, things that are private to you, but also things that are important to your security. But then also it's about protecting the information that you hold as an organisation. So, if you have a company that collects information from your customers, which almost every company does now, whether that be names, email addresses, phone numbers, all that information needs to be protected in some way, and that's where cyber security comes in.

Pippa
There have been a few examples recently of where things have gone wrong with cyber security. I wonder if there's any sort of big stories in this area that can sort of explain kind of what can go wrong when cyber security doesn't work.

Joe Tidy
We've seen some really major cyber attacks so far in 2025. Um, it's been the busiest year of my career, and I've been covering cyber crime for about ten years now. And I think the reason for that is we’ve had some major attacks on big companies that are recognised in countries, recognised around the world. Um, and we've seen some very visible examples of how cyber attacks can impact people’s lives. So, in the UK, for example, we've had a wave of attacks on retailers including Marks and Spencer, a real kind of bastion of the high street, very famous in the UK, very well-respected shop. They were hacked, um, in the spring and that led to people not being able to buy anything on the internet through, uh, through the company. And then they, also there were shelves inside stores that went empty because they had logistics problems. And it was a real visible sign of just how bad things can get when people cannot get the groceries they need. And the same thing happened a couple of weeks later with Co-op, which is another major retailer in the UK. And then there was an attack on Harrods as well. We think all by the same group. Um, and Harrods is obviously a well-known brand around the world.

And then hot off the heels of that, we saw lots of other attacks on airlines around the world and, and, and luxury retailers like Dior and Balenciaga and Gucci. And then there's this still ongoing hack against Jaguar Land Rover, which has major manufacturing hubs here in the UK. And they've all been taken offline because of the cyber attack, which means that there are no cars rolling off the production lines, which means that, um, all those people who work there have had to been, go home and not be able to work. It's had a major impact on, obviously Jaguar Land Rover, its cost potentially £2 billion to the UK economy. So, I think this year particularly, we’ve seen some absolutely enormous cyberattacks that have had a big impact, not just on the companies that’ve been impacted, but also the general public. And in some cases, like the Jaguar Land Rover, an entire country's economy.

Pippa
OK, so Joe says we're seeing a rise in cyber attacks. It's all quite scary.

Phil
But Pippa, if hackers are targeting big companies. Is it something we should worry about personally?

Pippa
Well, Joe says that with the rise in attacks on businesses, there could be a rise in scams targeting individuals because lots of personal data is taken when a big company is hacked.

Joe Tidy
People are just sort of starting to realise that cyber crime is massive and these companies are being hit all the time. I cannot cover every single cyber attack that takes place. There are just too many. Every day there seems to be some sort of data breach somewhere. Um, I think what we might potentially see is because there have been so many major data breaches in the last year or so, two years. I think we're going to start to see individuals impacted more. I think we're going to start to see more scams because of all that data that the hackers have stolen, that goes into the ecosystem. And I think individuals might start becoming more aware of scams, hopefully not more victims of scams, but more aware.

Pippa
Yeah. And I guess on that individual level or practical level, if you're someone working at a big corporation and you're sort of becoming aware of cyber security, what do you think is kind of important to be aware of? What are kind of the basics when it comes to this?

Joe Tidy
I think there's some really basic things that individual members of staff can do if they work in an organisation and they're thinking about cyber security. First of all, it’s just to be really suspicious. I know it's not a very nice thing to think about, but just if you see an email or a phone call or text come in from somewhere that you think is work, check. And if you think it might be a client, check. Um, my advice to people all the time, in fact, I did it to myself today, I got an unusual email from Zoom about a recording that was going to be deleted. And I thought, well, hang on, I don’t think I've got any old recordings. So I went, instead of replying to that email or clicking on the link in that email, I went directly to the Zoom app and I checked for myself. And it was legitimate in the end. But I think go to the horse's mouth is what I always say to people. And that goes within your personal life and your work life. If you're hearing something from your boss, just check with your boss that it actually is them. Not all the time, obviously, but if something looks a little bit too good to be true, then it often is.

One other thing. We call it cyber hygiene, and it's like keeping, in the same way that you make sure that you're hygienic in your, in your personal life, you know, wash your hands, do your teeth. You can do that in cyber as well. And things, things that help your cyber hygiene are, for example, do not use the same password across multiple different accounts. That sounds obvious, but people still do. Because if one company or one service is breached by hackers, not only do they have your email, they now have your password for lots of other accounts they might want to go into. So, using a password manager is the advice that is always given. That's what I do. So, I have a password manager where I have a very, very complex password to get into this app, which has all my passwords. It sounds terrifying because all of your eggs are in one basket, as we say, but it is safer than trying to and failing often, to remember all the different passwords that you might need for different websites and apps and services. So that would be a really easy thing to do in terms of cyber hygiene.

Pippa
So Joe's key advice is to be suspicious. And I think that's quite useful.

Phil
Yes. Whenever I see something that I don't recognise or sometimes something that just looks a bit wrong, maybe the spelling or grammar, there’s mistakes in it, or it just doesn't feel like what you'd get from the company that something's pretending to be from.

Pippa
Another thing to think about is the urgency. So, an email or message that seems really urgent and warns about a big deadline, maybe saying if you don’t do this thing straight away, then you'll lose all your photos or you’ll be locked out of your account, something like that. This could be to shock you into doing something. So, I always think, just take a breath. Take a moment to check things. Urgency is something that always makes me suspicious.

Phil
Yes. And of course, the other thing, we’re talking about work, um, a lot of us will work in companies where there are cyber security policies, things that you need to do or things you need to take care of or not do. Um, and so, of course, it's really important to follow those policies.

Pippa
That's it for this episode of Learning English for Work. Have you enjoyed these episodes about the future of work? What would you like us to talk about next on the podcast? Send us an email. Our address is [email protected]. We read everything, even if we don't have time to reply.

Phil
For more programmes to improve your English at work, visit our websitebbclearningenglish.com. Thanks for joining us and goodbye.

Pippa
Bye.

Now try this...

Learn tech jargon