IN THE NEWS Cyber criminal tactics under spotlight

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.