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Cyberattacks and scams: how to secure your family’s phones and accounts

Secure your phone and accounts: a practical guide

⏱ 3 min read

Two-step login, family code word, backups. A guide based on official advice. The same text is in the free SurvivalZone.app and works without internet.

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Fake parcel texts, calls from a “bank employee” and messages from a “grandchild” who urgently needs money: scammers use every crisis. Large cyberattacks can also shut down power, phones, payments and hospital systems.

Most of these protections take one evening to set up and keep working for years.

Accounts and phones

  1. Turn on two-step verification for email, banking and social media. Start with email, because it is used to reset other passwords.
  2. Use a password manager and different passwords for different services.
  3. Turn on automatic updates for your phone and apps.
  4. Install apps only from the official store.

Personal data

  1. Set payment limits and notifications for every transaction in your banking app. In some countries you can also block your ID number or credit file against fraud; in Poland, for example, you can block your PESEL in the mObywatel app.

A family code word

  1. Agree a word you will ask for when someone calls or writes asking for money. Even a familiar voice can be faked. Talk about this especially with older parents.

When services stop working

  1. Back up photos and documents. Keep some cash and a battery radio. Report scam texts to your national service: in the UK forward them to 7726. In SurvivalZone.app you can check a link against the CERT Polska warning list.

When an attack paralyses the country

  1. The most serious scenario is an attack on power, telecoms and hospitals at once. For several days there may be no electricity, signal, internet, card payments or working systems at clinics.
  2. Prepare a medical card for everyone at home: conditions, allergies, medicines with doses, blood group. In SurvivalZone.app you can make it in minutes and print it. Keep a few days of regular medicines.
  3. Write the most important phone numbers on paper and agree a family meeting point in case phones stop working.
  4. Keep cash in small notes, a battery radio and a power bank. Official announcements will be on the radio.

Checklist

  1. Two-step verification on email and bank
  2. A password manager
  3. Automatic updates
  4. Bank limits and notifications
  5. A family code word
  6. Backups of photos and documents
  7. Cash and a battery radio
  8. Printed medical card and spare medicines
  9. Phone numbers on paper and a meeting point

See also

Frequently asked questions

How do I protect myself from phone scammers?

Agree a family code word, never give one-time codes or passwords over the phone, and call back on a number you know when someone asks for money.

What is two-step verification?

A second check when you log in, such as a code in an app. Even if someone steals your password, they cannot get in without it.

Where do I report a scam text?

To your national cyber security centre or police. In the UK, forward it to 7726.

How do I prepare my family for a cyberattack that shuts down power and hospitals?

Print a medical card with medicines, keep spare medicines, cash and a battery radio, write numbers on paper and agree a meeting point in case phones stop working.

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Sources

Official sources are checked automatically every day. Last check: 2026-11-04.

General guidance only; it does not replace the emergency services. If a life is in danger, call 112.