Cybersmartness makes web safe for children

The pandemic was one of the most transformational events that we have experienced in decades. Even as we anticipate the return to some semblance of a pre-Covid life, it has caused lasting changes in how we work, study, communicate and conduct business. Having to ‘work, learn and play from home’ has now become a new normal. This has also meant that our dependency on the internet and anything digital is now at the peak.

With significant access to the internet, we are exposed to an unfiltered digital world where we are highly vulnerable to cybercrime. Our students have been forced to move away from a traditional education system where classrooms have moved to the cloud. However, the challenges to their security have not been thought through well enough.

As technology is in the process of democratising education for all, low and middle-income families have had to invest in devices to ensure access to education for their children.

Many of them opt for family-owned computing devices such as common PCs or shared smartphones. Children who had limited access to the internet are now deep into the cyber world with little awareness about their exposed threats. Parents and teachers have shared this concern too.

The shift to cloud-based learning also means that the sector is now more at risk. In fact, cybercriminals are choosing schools and students as easy targets because the unsecured devices and networks, misconfigured or default passwords, and out-of-date systems with missing patches make them easy to exploit. There is also the threat of cyber predators with fake identities who target students from vulnerable age groups.

Understand possible threats

It becomes imperative for students and parents to first understand the possible threats they can be faced with if they are to safeguard themselves. These include exposure to inappropriate content, online abuse such as cyberbullying, cyberstalking, chat room abuse, and harassment in forums and gaming communities.

Then there are cases of impersonation, fake profiles, identity theft, financial scams, malware, mobile-based malware, malicious ads, malicious social media-based messaging, fake apps, taking over of webcams, and social engineering-based attacks (SMSing, Vishing, Phishing attacks) and ransomware attacks. Secondly, they must then learn to identify the red flags and how to handle them efficiently.

A multi-stakeholder approach where parents, students, the civil society and the government work together to address the issue with an educational framework on cyber threats and solutions is essential. Awareness does not mean high-end technical know-how—it simply entails basic ‘cyber hygiene practices’.

Parents must be cautious

As a parent, some basic things will go a long way in protecting against online threats. One can start with securing the devices, installing good anti-virus software and updating it regularly. Wi-Fi and personal hotspots need to be securely configured. Password sharing, default passwords and easy-to-guess passwords lead to your data being compromised and hence should be discouraged.

One must enable privacy settings such as not sharing location details, identity details, contact numbers, or access to content, pictures and files on your systems. Implement parental controls, control the stranger contacts of your children in the online world, create user account passwords for each device and set up separate user accounts on shared devices as well.

Governments and private IT players can collaborate to play a significant role in building initiatives committed to imparting cyber learning to students, parents and teachers. Stringent cybersecurity policies and systems to redress grievances need to be in place. An example is the online cybercrime reporting portal that has been launched.

A collaborative approach is necessary to ensure our children are cyber-smart, cyber-trained and well-equipped to take on the threats in the digital world that is here to stay.

(The author is a cyber-security expert)