There's an epidemic of local businesses suffering from cyber attacks.

That from David Swan, the Director of the Cyber Intelligence Defence Centre in Vulcan.

He says he's been kept very busy lately.

"I've been slammed! Local businesses have been hit a lot more frequently with everything from ransom-ware to phishing attacks, attempts to break into their commercial bank accounts."

Swan says your first and best line of defence is to upgrade your operating system to the latest version and at least once a week download any updates.

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