Privacy

Where should you look when a question comes up at home about setting parental controls or whether you should post those pictures of your kids online? Try the Privacy and Internet Safety section of the Common Sense Media site. While there are research articles all over the web with information on this subject, this section covers a wide range of topics and is something you might want to add to your browser’s bookmarks for quick reference.

Teaching kids about the security vulnerabilities with Internet of Things (IoT) devices can help them avoid falling prey to hackers, writes Jacob Batchelor in an article entitled You've Been Hacked! Explaining Cybersecurity to Students in an Interconnected Era. Batchelor explains ways to introduce the problem of hacking to kids, help them recognize the problem of IoT hacks, and show them what they can do to protect their privacy. Experts predict that in just a few years, interconnected devices such as refrigerators, baby monitors, toys, Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home, will number in the billions.

Teaching kids about the security vulnerabilities with Internet of Things (IoT) devices can help them avoid falling prey to hackers, writes Jacob Batchelor in an article entitled You've Been Hacked! Explaining Cybersecurity to Students in an Interconnected Era. Batchelor explains ways to introduce the problem of hacking to kids, help them recognize the problem of IoT hacks, and show them what they can do to protect their privacy. Experts predict that in just a few years, interconnected devices such as refrigerators, baby monitors, toys, Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home, will number in the billions.

A recent survey administered by Carbon Black looks at consumers’ responses to ransomware, and you may find the results surprising. The study found that if hacked, 52% of consumers would shell out a ransom for their data, and 12% would pay $500 or more. It was also found that consumers are less trusting of retailers with their data than they are of banks and health care providers. Furthermore, the majority of consumers believe the responsibility is on the individual businesses to keep their data safe, ahead of cybersecurity companies/cybersecurity software vendors, software providers (Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc.), and government organizations (FBI, NSA, CIA, etc.).

A recent survey administered by Carbon Black looks at consumers’ responses to ransomware, and you may find the results surprising. The study found that if hacked, 52% of consumers would shell out a ransom for their data, and 12% would pay $500 or more. It was also found that consumers are less trusting of retailers with their data than they are of banks and health care providers. Furthermore, the majority of consumers believe the responsibility is on the individual businesses to keep their data safe, ahead of cybersecurity companies/cybersecurity software vendors, software providers (Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc.), and government organizations (FBI, NSA, CIA, etc.).

Let’s not fool ourselves, the Internet is a downright scary place, and because of its universal nature, the whole world – the good and bad parts – are at your door every single day. What can you do to protect the privacy of your children? A recent article on the Common Sense Media site entitled 7 Reasons Parents Should Care About Kids and Online Privacy outlines privacy invasion situations every parent needs to be prepared for and offers common sense tips on how to handle them.

Let’s not fool ourselves, the Internet is a downright scary place, and because of its universal nature, the whole world – the good and bad parts – are at your door every single day. What can you do to protect the privacy of your children? A recent article on the Common Sense Media site entitled 7 Reasons Parents Should Care About Kids and Online Privacy outlines privacy invasion situations every parent needs to be prepared for and offers common sense tips on how to handle them.

This generation going off to college next fall may be “digital natives,” but some of them certainly have a lot to learn yet about digital etiquette, safety, and privacy.  Harvard College canceled admission offers to at least ten prospective students of the Class of 2021 because of racist and sexually explicit memes they posted in a private Facebook chat, according to the a recent report. The individuals were informed in April that their admissions offers to the prestigious Ivy League institution were under review, then later rescinded, because they had posted memes mocking the Holocaust, sexual assault and child abuse, among other topics, in a private Facebook messaging group that was formed late last year, according to The Harvard Crimson. This incident certainly should be part of all parents’ discussion about how nothing you post is really private online and anything you post, no matter how exclusive the group, can come back to haunt you.

This generation going off to college next fall may be “digital natives,” but some of them certainly have a lot to learn yet about digital etiquette, safety, and privacy.  Harvard College canceled admission offers to at least ten prospective students of the Class of 2021 because of racist and sexually explicit memes they posted in a private Facebook chat, according to the a recent report. The individuals were informed in April that their admissions offers to the prestigious Ivy League institution were under review, then later rescinded, because they had posted memes mocking the Holocaust, sexual assault and child abuse, among other topics, in a private Facebook messaging group that was formed late last year, according to The Harvard Crimson. This incident certainly should be part of all parents’ discussion about how nothing you post is really private online and anything you post, no matter how exclusive the group, can come back to haunt you.

Is your pet’s name your “usual” password online? If so, you are not alone - but in using your pet’s name or some variation of it, you may make it easier for hackers to access to your online accounts. To bring awareness to this issue, behavioral biometrics company, BehavioSec, teamed up with animal charity Bideawee to highlight five adoptable pets with hacker-proof names that are easy to remember, because as the cartoon of a man introducing his son to the new family puppy on the BehavioSec site points out “You can name her whatever you like, but be sure it is something you can remember. You’ll be using it as a security question answer for the rest of your life.”