How it Works

A Quick Note

This tool helps you strengthen your cybersecurity and lower the chance of harm. No approach is perfect: people make mistakes and attackers keep adapting. The goal is to raise the bar so most attackers move on. Think of home security: decent locks, alarms, lighting and spiky hedges deter most criminals. Do the basics well and you become a much harder target.

Step 1: View your Actions

The starting point is the Action List, giving you key cybersecurity actions to review or implement. Each card shows its status badge (Not Done, Skipped or Done) and a button - “Let’s Secure This” to read guidance on how to achieve this action. There are three tiers of actions - foundation, improver and enhanced. Completing even the foundation actions will significantly reduce your risk of being a victim of cybercrime.

Action cards for the Foundation stage, each with status badge and an action button — Screenshot of action list with status badges

Step 2: Read Guidance about an Action

Once you've clicked the blue “Let’s Secure This” button you will see detailed guidance on how to implement that security measure, with useful links to help you. Most guidance follows the 'What is This' > 'Why Do This' > 'How to Do This' model, and you can jump straight to the how section with the menu on the left-hand side.

Once you have read the guidance, click the “Update This Action” button choose how you’ve responded. You can go back to the action list without responding using the “Back to Action List” link.

Modal dialog titled ‘Update This Action’ with options for marking an action done or skipped — Screenshot of guidance on how to complete this action

Step 3: Complete the Action

Once you've clicked the “Update This Action” button, you will get a pop-up window giving you choices as to what you did in response to our guidance. Most actions can be answered as:

I've just done this
I already had this sorted
Not Applicable
Skip - this is too technical for me
Skip - something else is holding me back

Some questions don't have a 'Not Applicable' option. If you choose 'Skip - something else is holding me back' - you have the option of giving us a bit more detail. Once you click the “Save and Close Action” button you will be taken back to your Action List and that action will be cleared. This also helps us understand how useful Police CyberCheck is in improving peoples' cybersecurity - but we only ever know anonymous statistical information on this.

Congratulations modal with options to review or continue to the next stage — Screenshot of the pop-up window where you choose whow you dealt with an action

Step 4: Review Completed Actions

Once you've updated an Action with a result, it will move to the bottom of the list and change colour and badge - green for 'I've just done this' or 'I already had this sorted', amber for 'Skipped' and grey for 'Not Applicable'.

Progress bar at top and a green Next Stage button — Screenshot of completed action at the bottom of the list

Step 5: Complete a Stage

As soon as you've updated the last action on your Action List at this stage, you will see a pop-up congratulating you on completing these actions. You can choose to review this stage of actions, or move on to the next stage. If you choose to review the current stage, you can always hit the “Next Stage” button next to the progress bar, or hit the three-line menu button in the top-left corner to jump around stages.

Save your progress modal asking for email address — Screenshot of the completed stage pop-up window

Saving Your Progress

At any time, you can hit the “Save” button in the lower-right corner, enter your email address and click “Send”. We’ll email you a secure link so that when you return, you can pick up exactly where you left off. We do not store your email address - only a secure code we generate from it which can't be reversed to work out your email address if anyone ever got hold of that code. We don't use passwords - just magic links in your inbox.

Modal showing email field and Send button — Screenshot of email entry and Send button

Sending Yourself a Reminder

Once you have saved your progress with the “Save” button, you can later hit the “Email” button to email a summary of your last action and the next action you should complete. Our system does limit how often you can click this button for security reasons - about every couple of minutes and four times every 10 minutes. You don't have to do this - your progress is always saved once you have hit save that first time.

Landing page with Resume CyberCheck button — Screenshot of Resume CyberCheck button

Resuming Your Progress Without a Link

If you've previously saved but accidentally deleted your resume link, you can still pick up where you left off. On the Police CyberCheck home page, click the “Resume CyberCheck” button to enter your email and re‑open your saved progress.

Resume modal requesting email verification — Screenshot of email verification modal

Side navigation menu showing stage links and support links — Screenshot of side navigation menu

Navigating Around

Click the hamburger menu icon (three horizontal bars) at the top‑left to slide out the side navigation. From the menu you can jump to any stage, view this “How it Works” guide, access “Help & Support,” or read our “Privacy & Security” page.