How To Protect your Kids from Cyberattacks

During the peak of the COVID-19 crisis, kids everywhere experienced a shift in their education and their social lives to lives that exist almost entirely online. Unfortunately, the vast majority of applications and platforms have yet to be designed with child safety in mind.

According to data from the University of Maryland, hackers attack 2,244 times a day, or every 39 seconds. For the most part, the rise in recent cyberthreats can be attributed to both domestic and international hackers taking advantage of the increasing online activity of many K-12 students — who, as a result of the novel coronavirus, have been studying from home.

Many kids have never had to consider how dangerous cyber criminals can be, or how important it is to stay cyber secure when accessing a school network remotely or posting to social media. The lack of applications marketed solely to children prompted a disturbing surge of online child sexual abuse reports just last year. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received more than 4 million reports of online child sexual abuse in April 2020 — an increase of nearly 3 million from April 2019.

Whether it’s the issue of hackers and scammers or online predators – it’s time to educate your children about the harsh realities of cyberattacks.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

According to statistics from Stay Safe Online, one-third of a child’s life is spent online, with a notable 77 percent of children attending school online and 94 of teens conducting research online. What’s more is that 91 percent of 18–24-year-olds say they network online with people they don’t really know and 46 percent of the same age group admit to using file-sharing apps that offer access to their personal PCs and files.

The digital world provides anonymity, which is often abused by cyber criminals who pose as a trustworthy individual or friend. A study from the Center for Cyber Safety and Education revealed that 40 percent of children in grades 4-8 have talked to a stranger online. Even more worrisome, 53 percent provided their phone number, 30 percent texted and 15 percent even tried to meet up with the unknown individuals engaging in anonymous, online communications.

A federal law, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) helps protect kids younger than 13 when they’re online. It’s designed to keep anyone from getting a child’s personal information without a parent knowing about it and agreeing to it first. COPPA requires websites to explain their privacy policies and get parental consent before collecting or using a child’s personal information, such as a name, address, phone number, or Social Security number. The law also prohibits a site from requiring a child to provide more personal information than necessary to play a game or enter a contest.

It is much easier to prevent an attack from happening than it is to detect one and reverse the damage once it’s done. Since COVID-19, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (ICCC) reported an estimated 300 percent increase in reported cybercrimes. As if a pandemic wasn’t scary enough, hackers leveraged the opportunity to attack vulnerable networks as office work moved to personal homes. As of this summer, the FBI ICCC recorded 12,377 Covid-related scams where scammers used interest and attention to an issue to get clicks and take advantage of the change in human behavior and daily life in response to the pandemic.

It’s essential to teach your child to spot red flags in any online communication with strangers, especially while transitioning to a fully remote schooling model amid a global pandemic. Best practices would suggest that you advise them to be cautious about whom they communicate online with and perhaps talk with them about some of the risks they could expose themselves to by not maintaining good cyber health.

Why you should educate your Kids on Cyberattacks

These days, technology isn’t optional; some platforms are required by schools and for many children, are the only way they can communicate with their classmates. However, informed parenting can only go so far to protect kids from the platforms that could leave them exposed to possible cyberattacks. Protecting your child’s online identity is essential in the digital era, where becoming a digitally-driven family can pose certain challenges if left unchecked. Recognizing the long-term effects of cyberattacks is well worth the effort, as are meaningful conversations about cyber threats and how to prevent them.

Based on additional extensive research, here are some suggestions Red River has that you might use to educate your kids on cyberattacks (or at least to start the conversation):

1. Watch out for increasingly sophisticated phishing scams
   • Learn about Social Engineering and how malicious actors might approach you by asking for private information
   • Be wary of ‘out of the ordinary’ emails
     • Note unusual language, typos to account names (e.g., joe.smith@yahoo.org when contact is listed as joe-smith@yahoo.com)
   • Double check the source when receiving a message asking you to open an attachment or link

2. Actively avoid accessing sensitive information through unsecured networks
   • Steer clear of using public Wi-Fi
   • Use multi-factor authentication with all devices
   • Enable software updates to stay current on security software

3. Try not to overshare on social media
   • Set personal pages to private
   • Update security settings regularly
   • Remove people you don’t know
   • Avoid sharing your whereabouts

4. Practice good cyber hygiene
   • Instruct your kids to NEVER provide personal identifiable information online without verifying the website’s credibility
     • Includes home addresses, credit card numbers, Social Security Numbers (SSN), etc.

Within the next decade, cybercrime might become the greatest threat to every person, place and living thing across the globe. The best defense against evolving hackers is to stay informed and learn from, albeit scary, but useful cybersecurity statistics and facts. Non-profit organizations like Kids Health are able to provide a comprehensive list of what to look out for. By better understanding how cyber criminals think, it becomes easier to recognize the strategies that they will use before they use them to attack or contact your children online.

For information on how you and your family can prevent cyberattacks before they happen, click here https://redriver.com/expertise/security to read more.