As children become increasingly connected and have easy access to electronic devices such as tablets, cell phones and computers, they also become a gateway for cybercriminals, who take advantage of children's vulnerability and naivety to ask for passwords and send malicious links for children to click on and contaminate their devices.
Recently, Mantis, ISH Tech's Digital Risk Protection platform, warned that hackers have been taking advantage of electronic games to spread trojans that steal user data.
That's why you need to know and understand how to avoid these threats in order to make the "virtual" experience safe and positive for children.
Children are easy targets for cybercriminals
In order to take advantage of other players, users of games such as League of Legends, Valorant, Counter Strike, Dota 2, Apex Legends, PUBG and Lost Ark, among others, search for videos on YouTube to learn tricks about the game.
According to Leonardo Camata, a cybersecurity specialist, in an interview with Band News, some videos offer the possibility of downloading codes to cheat in the game, a practice known as Cheat. Once downloaded, what appears to be a Cheat code actually turns out to be malware, which installs itself and searches for confidential data, such as passwords, credit card numbers, session cookies for logging into accounts without a password, cryptocurrency wallet keys and even chat history.
In mid-August, Mantis identified 645 videos posted on YouTube about the games mentioned. These videos contain links in their description to download fake Cheats, which are actually programs designed to steal confidential information. These videos combined had more than 226,000 views in the period.
The bad news is not just for children and teenagers. The Mantis team has identified many cases in which children of employees of various companies have fallen for the scam and compromised information from the companies where their parents work. This is confirmed when the information is sold, as it is easy to identify the corporate domain of the user whose credentials were leaked, and also by noting that the operating systems are usually corporate.
Unmonitored children
A new survey has revealed that 42% of Brazilians say they trust their children under the age of 18 to surf the Internet without monitoring. However, almost three quarters of the parents interviewed (74%) report that their children have participated in dangerous online activities without permission.
The survey, which included more than 1,000 Brazilians over the age of 18, found that 78% of adults believe that children are more likely to provide their family members' personal information online. In addition, 33% of those interviewed said that their children have used their parents' devices and clicked on a suspicious link; 43% have contacted someone unintentionally; 18% have accessed adult or age-inappropriate content; and 17% have made an unauthorized purchase.
The tactics of cybercriminals and malicious people on the Internet are becoming increasingly sophisticated and, as a result, 82% of Brazilians believe that it is difficult for parents to keep children safe when they are online, while 93% agree that it is now more important than ever to talk to their children about cyber security.
In addition to scams and malware, children are exposed to other types of threats, such as cyberbullying; exposure to inappropriate content, especially sexual content; and sexual abuse, with pedophiles trying to convince children to send photos and videos or even arrange meetings.
See 5 protection tips
Home office: don't let your children use the smartphone or computer you use to access the corporate network for fun. The chances of them downloading malware are much higher and hackers could gain access to the bank's application and even access to the company's network and data. Ideally, they should have their own devices and preferably a children's tablet, which allows access to content aimed only at children.
Install antivirus software: there are free versions available, which offer basic protection, but the paid versions have more features and are more efficient. Many of these paid versions offer Parental Control, which blocks inappropriate websites, stops malicious files and even controls the time your child spends on the Internet.
Activate Parental Controls: search engines (such as Google), operating systems (PC or smartphone) and application stores allow you to set filters or restrict access to sites and programs that are inappropriate for children. They also prevent the exchange of passwords and show the history of activities, such as websites visited and applications used.
Talk to your children: explain the importance of maintaining privacy and personal and family information. Tell them to select their circle of friends on social networks and not to accept people they don't know or are not very close to. Also explain that they shouldn't click on any link they receive, as it could be a malicious file.
Be careful with passwords: good passwords apply to both parents and children. Ideally, long passwords with numbers and special characters that are difficult to guess. Instruct your children to log out of their accounts when they use other people's computers or computers that are used collectively, such as libraries and schools.
Check out our E-book "Cybersecurity guide for your children"
To find out more about how to prevent children from being the gateway to hackers, download our e-book "A safety guide for your children" and go beyond Parental Control tools.
In the e-book, you can find out about the categories of threats to children in the digital world, learn about cyber threats and where they infiltrate, and what resources you can use to protect your children in the digital environment. Check it out!