50 Million Online Students And Cybercrime: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
By: Jim Stickley and Tina Davis
March 23, 2021
According to estimates, there are more than 50 million K-12 students learning online this year. The coronavirus has the lion’s share of responsibility for this astronomical number as children and their families struggle to adapt to learning online safely. The challenges are many, including the need for high-speed internet, an adequate device to use that internet, and the technical support to enable remote communications with their teachers. However, there’s a flip side to the remote learning coin and it’s one that cybercriminals love to abuse in any way they can.
A hacker’s options for remote education attacks are many. First, most homes and schools are not equipped with the technology to thwart attacks. That said, the next significant security weakness comes from students themselves, many of whom are too young to understand the risks involved. Those risks include tempting email phishing attacks and social media invites from strangers with bad intentions. And therein lies the problem of the need for remote learning vs. the security risks it presents.
Combatting remote learning risks falls to the responsibility of teachers, parents, and students. With a good dose of common sense as a guide, the following are tools and suggestions to make your children and their education safer during this most challenging time.
Safe Learning and Remote Education
Remote learning greatly increases the attack options for hackers. Schools K-12 and higher are sorely lacking online security protection, mostly due to budget restrictions. Until schools become part of the solution, parents and their children need to go forward safely. Most children 12 years and older likely know internet safety practices, but that doesn’t mean they’ll use them. The more a parent knows about the hazards of online environments, the better equipped they are to understand what their children are up against.
- Have children study in a common area whenever possible. Keeping an eye on their studies and screens insures they won’t be redirected to risky sites or other temptations. Children face the same online risks that adults do, like harmful pop-up ads, email phishing, identity theft, malware attacks, and much more.
- Be the gatekeeper of all login information, especially passwords. Making sure kids don’t have access to other sites while learning keeps them on the straight and narrow, and at the same time ensures their security and attention.
- Encourage safe behavior that protects kids’ online safety. Go over the basics with them like never posting photographs or sharing any personal information like location and phone numbers. Let them know that once they post something, there’s no real way to take it back, even if it’s deleted.
- Remember, be sincere as well as cybersmart. Your children will thank you for it…eventually!