Cyber criminal tactics under the spotlight
Engaging with certain social media posts can be a hazard
IF YOU’VE seen social media posts asking you to combine your street name and favourite colour to create your band persona, don’t engage with it. This is one of the ways online predators gain access to your personal information and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) warned that South African citizens shared too much personal information online.
The CSIR hosted a briefing on cyber crime and social media threats yesterday and said South Africans were allowing cyber criminals to exploit them by sharing too much information.
CSIR researchers Dr Vukosi Marivate, Muyowa Mutemwa, Nyalleng Moorosi and Thulani Mashiane showcased their research in social mining data, network vulnerability, data science for public safety and cyber security awareness which showed how networkers were preyed upon online.
Their data showed that cyber criminals were targeting kids through games such as Blue Whale, which asks teenagers to perform self-harming tasks, including committing suicide.
“Parents, please check what kids are doing on their phones. Many teenagers are killing themselves because of these games.
“In this game, participants are expected to share photos of the challenges completed by them. This include cutting themselves, killing animals and eventually killing themselves,” said Mashiane.
Mashiane said users often ignored app permissions, allowing apps to access their personal information such as their physical location.
“Apps require access to your exact location, revealing details such as your house number, workplace and e-mail account details.
“Other people post pictures of their vehicles with a number plate clearly visible for the world to see, making it easier for criminals to clone the registration number.
Researcher Mutemwa warned South Africans of the dangers of using public and open networks for banking transactions.
Mutemwa said cyber criminals loved public open networks such as internet café networks, coffee shop wi-fi and conference wi-fi, which could be used to access transactional data. Mutemwa also advised against investing in cryptocurrencies that promise high returns.
Dr Marivate concluded by saying that the organisation hoped to use social media to combat crime as they were developing a tool to help law enforcement agencies, government and NGOs understand the trends in crime and public safety.
THEIR DATA SHOWED CYBER CRIMINALS WERE TARGETING KIDS THROUGH GAMES
HOW can we help kids learn to make the best use of technology while staying safe? We need to talk. The importance of ongoing open dialogue about the cyber universe cannot be overstated. In fact, conversations about online safety should begin from the moment that children begin to roam the internet.
Explaining that physical and digital are two sides of the same coin (well, you may want to use other words) and that just like the real world, the online world is home to safe and unsafe things provides for a good start. Think sharing personal information or talking to strangers on the internet where, even more so than in real life, nobody is who they may seem to be.
This could go hand in hand with explaining why they should never open messages from or click on links sent by unknown people because it could easily be a phishing message.
Naturally, these initial walks in the jungle that is the internet should take place under your supervision.
“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them,” as the author and activist James Baldwin once said.
Indeed, the best way to connect to kids is lead by example, so they can learn from that example. And show them that good password hygiene can actually be fun when turned into an engaging activity that consists of putting together random letters and words.
On the other hand, there is evidence that parents’ use of new media directly influences how much time their offspring spend with technology. With this in mind, we should consider limiting our screen time, so they don’t feel like they need to compete for our attention.
Which brings us to the need for being cognisant of the quality and duration of online content consumed by children.
Clearly, not all online content is equal and technology can be used for various purposes, including education, content creation, passive consumption and pure play time. If you’re concerned about their overindulging, consider creating rules and schedules for their time online.
Indeed, there is a time and place for that, too. Until Facebook introduced Messenger Kids recently, no child was allowed to use any major social network before they were at least 13. Or so the theory goes. Enforcing this restriction has always been next to impossible.
Either way, children need to be made wary of threats lurking on social media.
This starts with not befriending people whom they don’t know in real life and being cautious about what kind of information they share. When interacting with their peers, children can also witness or become the victims of cyberbullying or other highly common forms of abusive behaviour.
Even if you’ve done your homework and taught your children about responsible behaviour online, it’s rather difficult to ensure that they don’t wander into the net’s seedier recesses, whether it happens by accident or where curiosity gets the better of them. Which is where technology can help.
Options such as setting up restricted user accounts for children and/or deploying tools known as parental controls are designed to support you in your mission to help your children use the internet safely and productively.
Protecting kids online may appear as a technological issue, but at heart it is a parenting issue. And so it is just another way of looking after them, one that mirrors and complements your care in the real world. They’ll thank you later.