Yet, while there are definite benefits to being online, there are dangers that many of us need to be aware of, particularly younger people who have been spending a lot more time on the internet. In fact, research by Ofcom has found 40% of children have engaged in ‘risky behaviours’ online by the time they reach the age of 12.

Whether it be gaming, social media or general web browsing, the age young people interact with the internet is getting lower and, unfortunately, there is the risk they are interacting or sharing sensitive information with people they don’t know. A child could’ve taken a picture or video of themselves and posted on a social media platform which could result in millions seeing them. Or sent a friend request on a game to a random stranger, or just generally acted in a way that would be disapproving to their parents.

This is a scary thought for any parent or guardian, knowing that a child could be interacting with a complete stranger. This is a concern many cybersecurity experts have with, especially when the youth are on the internet. Irfahn Khimji, chief systems engineer at Tripwire says: “As the world has been going more and more digital, virtual interactions are more prominent than ever. The difference is that you can be anyone you want to be online. This can be challenging to identify who it is you are talking to, so it is critical to ensure not to give away personal information to those who you’ve only met online.”  Khimji adds: If you are faced with bullying or harassment, you can often block that user or even turn off your computer or mobile device and step away. If the harassment becomes persistent and threatening, you can always contact your local law enforcement agency to help.”

Joni Moore, director security solution at Lookout also advises parents to be more aware of what they are teaching their children when it comes to their activities online, with the teachings not too dissimilar from what they are taught in real-life: “Stranger-Danger” – we teach our kids to be aware of stranger danger in the real world.  The same applies online.”

Additionally, Moore explains it is beneficial for more of the general public to learn about cybersecurity techniques that are used to dupe online gamers – both young and old: “Some hackers target gamers with fake game updates or utilities claiming to customise your game or help speed your game progress. Malicious apps spread through phishing, in-game communications, as attachments on gamers’ forums or chat rooms, and by other, similar means.”

On Safer Internet Day, Digital Minister Chris Philp also announced that the Online Safety Bill will be significantly strengthened with a new legal duty requiring all sites that publish pornography to put robust checks in place to ensure their users are 18 years old or over.

This could include adults using secure age verification technology to verify that they possess a credit card and are over 18 or having a third-party service confirm their age against government data. Jon Andrews, VP, EMEA at Gurucul, had the following to say:  “It is an interesting topic as age restrictions on pornographic material on the internet would certainly help with societies problems when it comes to misogyny, violence towards women and sexism, which need to be directly addressed.

On the other hand, it is important to ensure that regulation don’t become restriction. The internet should be free and available to all, and regulations that can better society are certainly welcome. Credit card verification, however, can be a restrictive measure that might encourage people to obtain one in order to access certain parts of the internet, so less invasive forms of identification might be preferable. .

These restrictions will also require websites to store personal identifiable information. This adds a component of risk for users, who will need to trust these entities with highly sensitive data. Unless government bodies consider this aspect and scrutinise the security policies of these websites, the move could have serious privacy implications and might motivate threat actors to launch campaigns aimed at stealing credit card details and other valuable information.”

Phishing and malware are threats that are ever-present in the gaming world with malicious individuals determined to trick young and unsuspecting minds with dangerous attachments or urls. Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate at Comparitech provides some advice on this issue specifically: “Never click on links posted in chats. Just like with emails, you should never click on unsolicited links. They could lead to malware or a phishing page. Or worse, you could get rickrolled.”

Regarding the issue around malware, Moore adds: “Malware also spreads through legitimate game update mechanisms in some cases. Some of that malware is game-oriented, stealing gamers’ credentials or in-game goods, but some steal bank accounts and other personal information stored on computers or smartphones. Gamers should always ensure they run the latest version of OS.”

But these problems are not just found at home.

Tackling the issues of malware and phishing and keeping sensitive information safe are challenges enterprises face everyday. With employees re-entering the office environments again, organisations need to ensure security training is being conducted. For organisations unaware of how to get their workforce best prepared, Erich Kron, Security Awareness Advocate, KnowBe4 has parted with some necessary guidance:

“Security professionals within organisations can best train their employees to be on the lookout for cyber attacks by implementing frequent and consistent security awareness training and by sending simulated phishing attacks so that employees truly understand what a real cyber attack could look like and they can practice this skill in a way that does not bring risk to the organisation. Having the proper reporting structure for employees to report suspected phishing emails, vishing calls or other types of attacks is also critical to help keep an organisation safe.”

“Employees may have adopted poor security practices while working remotely, such as sharing their devices or having corporate information on personal devices, not locking their machine when leaving it unattended or using corporate devices for personal tasks. These types of problems are often overlooked. Beyond technology, there could be physical records and assets that have made their way into employees’ homes. It is also difficult to determine if any sensitive information has been printed and secured or disposed of securely.”

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• Critical Issues – 72 percent of organisations reported regularly suffering from at least one of 6 critical issues that impact website and application availability (including Distributed Denial of Service [DDoS] attacks, network access issues and web server downtime), and 61 percent revealing the same for performance – any of these ‘internet problems’ are potentially DNS-related.
• DNS Complexity – Despite being relied upon by all businesses, only 8 percent of respondents claim to have full visibility across all areas of DNS, including frequency of dropped requests, cache poisoning, latency and overall load on DNS infrastructure, rendering it impossible to ensure a consistent service to internal and external Internet users. DNS complexity is a major reason for lack of visibility with 45 percent of organisations having as many as 8 different ways of provisioning their infrastructure.
• Room for improvement – 89 percent of respondents claim to be using a specialist DNS service provider, but just 15 percent have committed to using it for both internal and external DNS purposes to provide advanced features such as mitigation against DDoS attacks, reducing infrastructure load and central management tools to improve visibility. With so few benefiting from advanced features, it would suggest a lack of knowledge about the value add that can be provided via DNS, and what could be achieved by using a specialist DNS service provider.

 When complexity starts to prevent the delivery of efficiency and security benefits, businesses need to sit up and take notice. The report found that the majority of organisations use ISPs, managed hosting providers and internet registrars as way of provisioning some of their DNS needs. Such suppliers provide DNS services as a spinoff from the other things they do. On the other hand, 92 percent of organisations polled maintain some in-house DNS capability to cover recursive DNS (for internal internet users) and/or authoritative DNS (for external internet users) requirements. However, this unfocused approach to DNS management has its own drawbacks. Advanced DNS provision and management, as performed by a specialist DNS service provider, can deliver a number of valuable features to address these issues and provide significant value-add for businesses.
“DNS has been called the most important part of the internet that people don’t know about and its time IT managers woke up to what a professional DNS service can deliver to business,” said Rodney Joffe, SVP and Fellow at Neustar. “As the report highlights, DNS can be so much more than a website address directory. Provisioned correctly, by a reputable specialist DNS service provider, it can defend the front line in the fight against cyber-attacks, maximise the use of backend resources, ensure governance and be a rich source of marketing data.”

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• Code-signing for OS X systems is introduced. This should help users who had trouble with getting the Tor Browser to work on their Mac due to Gatekeeper interference.
• The release features new privacy enhancements and disables features potentially harmful in a Tor Browser context.
• SHA1 certificate support is disabled and the updater is not only relying on the signature alone, but is checking the hash of the downloaded update file as well before applying it.
• Version 6.0 provides a fix for a Windows installer related DLL hijacking vulnerability.

 
Original Source: Help Net Security
View the full story here.

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• Updated Antivirus and Security software is a necessity.
• Updated OS as well as up to date installed applications is a necessity.
• Be vigilant and monitor your child’s internet connection: set a password and allow children to surf the web only during the times when you can periodically check on their online activities. Set clear rules about the use of computers.
• Instruct children on internet privacy: they should never supply personal data and details to strangers on the web and social networks.
• Control the web camera as it can be easily misused by criminals and strangers.  Unplug or cover your webcam when you don’t use it. There is malware that can access your webcam without you knowing about it or, if your machine is compromised, it could be turned back on remotely. Have children use camera only for approved communication: with known friends and family.
• On social media, if you or your child shares the wall with “Everyone” or “Friends of friends” then you have lost control of who has access to all data
• The information posted on the internet does not go away. Do not assume that when you delete a photo or even the whole social network account that you have automatically deleted all the data forever. Pictures and information might be already saved on someone else’s computer. Children and parents should think twice about which pictures and details to put on the Internet.

For the full findings of the study visit the ESET blog at: http://www.welivesecurity.com/2016/02/23/digital-childhoods-different-nations-bring-kids/

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