It’s the biggest harvest season for Digital Honey Trapping. Everyone is over zealous to share new links ( without checking ), With devices being shared between parents & family ( Suddenly kids also need to be online for classes)…New age digital teacher struggling to cope up without knowing the risk, Students below ‘18’ enjoying new found freedom without knowing about prowling snakes, Employee and admins working outside of “Port control zone”.. forever.

Zoom – we all have been educated on( Security risk), Teams – just out that using some gifs you can gain entry, 16000+ domains for COVID being registered in a month. Of this 20+ % are in red or orange category ( Malicious or Suspicious), a surge of 600+ new phishing campaigns/day ( 100%+ increase )…

So, you are in a situation, where attacks are increased 100% and defense is decreased by more than 100%…Net net, it’s never a better time ‘to get Honey out of a Tomato’.

Since we have 3 different sets of groups (Students-Parents, The Famous Forward all & the Corporate) at risk, I would like to focus on the most vulnerable (as a CSR) with the first blog of this series…Being Parent – Loving ones, Agreed ones, Social Smart ones, Unaware ones…

Let’s begin with age limits: Most social media & gaming sites ( FB, Insta, Whats App, etc.) have age limits starting from 13+ or even 16+. Wake up parents, these are worst then Alcohol or Smoking. Access like these could be weapons in their hands, they can hurt themselves.

And the Punishments: POCSO Act (Checkout if not aware), it’s very stringent even if you are aware but do not do anything…Let’s say if your son/daughter or someone forwards any objectionable image to someone, they are part of the crime, and Punishment is very high. 

To know more about all these aspects of Laws, Punishment, Impact, type of crime, etc. please watch this Webinar by Distress Management Collective. Its a two hours webinar but a must-watch for every parent and then for them to speak to their wards. 


 
Webinar by Distress Management Collective: https://youtu.be/xTsgyJuCY_w

The crime is as easy: You know names of your classmates, their profiles pics are available in WhatsApp/Facebook, it’s easy to create a false identity and create a web of connectivity (read as friends network) and then post a morphed or private image of someone to damage the reputation.

How ironic is this term “Social media”, turning our kids into either antisocial elements like in “#Bois Locker Rooms” or socially exclusive victims of loneliness looking for friends online but unable to talk to people in the real world?

Remember giving birth in Digital Life is very easy, but death does not exist. So those morphed images or private images continue to be in Orbit for many many many years. “The Digital Footprint” is immortal.

What is the remedy then:
1. Restrict, restrict, restrict (remember if the law say 16+, it’s with some purpose)
2. Multi-factor Check (authentication), cross-validate for a social invite by calling the person to ensure he is the same person
3. No Password in Kids Phone (yes that helps, as they then know that parents can see)
4. Educate your kids, they should not become a party to “Fun” and be part of a major crime since it’s very easy to commit one
5. Let’s wait to be Social (18+), ask Kids to use Parents account if it’s that necessary before that
6. The kids are vulnerable and need our guidance on how to live in 2 different worlds the “Real-world” & the “Virtual world”
7. You have policy and tools available to restrict, use them and be watchful
8. There are special protection units in every country for children’s online safety, refer https://cybercrime.gov.in/ for India

Since these are mostly Social Scams, tools will not be of much help. Avoiding and being educated about it is the only way out. Be lucky and be safe.

“Hasta la Vista”

 

Author: Puneet Singh, an IT veteran with a specialty in Security & Cloud

Image-Credit: Femina India

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,