In last week’s GKIS article, “How Teens Overshare,” we covered the ways kids intentionally and unintentionally share location information on social media and how to prevent this safety risk. In today’s article, we detail how cybercriminals victimize teens and offer more helpful information on how to get your kids internet safe.
Cyberstalkers
Cyberstalkers are predators who track online information to extort or harass, create cybercrimes like hacking or identity theft, or intercept a victim offline. Cyberstalkers can be complete strangers or people your teen may already be acquainted with.
Hackers
Hackers are predators who steal usernames, passwords, and personal information to gain access to a victim’s screen device. Once they can access, they can still further data, change or destroy information, install malware, and even take over the device’s camera.[1] Data can then be sold to other criminals on the dark web or be used for identity theft to take out loans and credit cards in your name.
Phishing
Phishing is a cybercrime in which a victim is contacted by email, telephone, or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data. Phishing can also occur through websites and social media.[2] Dr. Bennett notes in her book, Screen Time in the Mean Time that the sensitive information obtained by phishing is often used for online login information such as usernames and passwords, bank account and credit card information, and even identity theft.
The most common example of phishing is email phishing. To email phish, the cybercriminal creates a fake domain that looks trustworthy and legitimate, then sends emails to potential victims asking them to click a link, download an attachment, or “update” their passwords.
To prevent your child from falling victim to online phishing, encourage them to only open emails, online messages, and text messages from trusted individuals and advise them to never click on any links or download attachments from an unusual or suspicious-looking email or message.
Identity Theft
According to The United States Department of Justice, “Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person’s personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain.”[5]
Cybercriminals often target younger individuals because children do not have bad credit (which is great for cybercriminals) and it is easy to keep it from being noticed until the child is older. In Dr. Bennett’s book, Screen Time in the Mean Time, she writes about a couple of children who were victims of identity theft.
Here are a few ways to protect your child from identity theft:
Install cybersecurity safeguards on phones, laptops, iPads, and any other device that need protection
Have family conversations about being wary of posting or sharing personal information online
Set up a virtual private network (VPN) to ensure the safety of your device(s)
Update passwords at least once a year and be sure that the new password does not include any information that may already be public such as, your teen’s name, age, pet’s name, or anything that could be easily guessed
Social Media Quizzes
Cybercriminals can also phish for information through social media by reviewing posts, asking questions, or offering an online quiz with targeted questions. Quiz questions to avoid include any that ask for your (or your mother’s) maiden name, your favorite color, the street you grew up on, your pets’ names, the first car you owned, or your best friend’s name.
The answers to these questions are often security answers on websites. With security information, personal accounts can be accessed for malicious intent. To prevent cybercrimes, ask your teen to refrain from taking online quizzes or you can encourage them to only take online quizzes from a legitimate source. Teaching your teen to withhold sharing personal information that could pose a security risk is vital to ensure their online safety.
Cyber Blackmail
Once a cybercriminal obtains sensitive information, they may use it to coerce a victim further. According to the BBC, “Cyber-blackmail is the act of threatening to share information about a person to the public, their friends or family unless a demand is met or money is paid.”[3] Cyber blackmail can take many forms and the cybercriminals who commit this crime use different tactics to take advantage of their victims.
Cybercriminals may even say that they have explicit photographs, access to their victim’s phone and computer’s webcam, or even recordings of them from their personal devices. Some of those claims may be true or false, but either way, the cybercriminal uses fear and shame to get what they want.[4]
To help prevent your teen from becoming a victim of cyber-blackmail;
advise them to never share sexual images of themselves (the images can end up anywhere)
advise them to not accept friend requests from strangers
advise them to be wary of things they post, share, or message others online (what they say can very well be used against them in the future)
require your teen to have private social media accounts
For more information and safety tips, we highly recommend parents to purchase our Cybersecurity & Red Flags Supplement. Dr. B created this tool because parents in her clinical and coaching practices frequently asked her to teach their kids the red flags that may alert them to the tricks of online predators, hate groups, and cyberbullies. In this Supplement, she offers her clinical teaching list so you can educate your kids. Knowledge and assertiveness coaching are key elements of child resilience and good judgment online.
Also included in the supplement is Dr. B’s Online Safety Red Flags for Parents. This tool teaches parents what child behaviors to look for that may signal they are at risk – a tool she created from 25+ years of clinical practice. Being able to recognize behavioral red flags in your child may be the difference between stopping risk after one exposure versus not recognizing dangerous relationships and exposures until it’s too late.
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Remi Ali Khan for researching cybercrimes and cybersecurity for this article.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
Onward to More Awesome Parenting,
Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D.
Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty
Photo Credits
Photo by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Photo by B_A from Pixabay
Photo by Pixabay from Pexles
Photo by Tracy Leblanc
Works Cited
Bennett, T. (2017). Screen Time in the Mean Time: How to Get Kids and Teens Internet Safe.
Brant, E., & Butterly, A. (2013, September 20). Cyber-blackmail: How to keep safe and deal with it. BBC Newsbeat. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/23724703/cyber-blackmail-how-to-keep-safe-and-deal-with-it.
Cyber Extortion: Ransomware vs Extortionware. Alpine Security. (2020, August 2). https://alpinesecurity.com/blog/cyber-extortion-ransomware-vs-extortionware/.
The Dangers of Hacking and What a Hacker. https://www.webroot.com/us/en/resources/tips-articles/computer-security-threats-hackers.
Identity Theft. The United States Department of Justice. (2017, February 7). https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/identity-theft/identity-theft-and-identity-fraud.
KnowBe4. What Is Phishing? Phishing. https://www.phishing.org/what-is-phishing.
The pandemic of 2020 has many of us working from home. For most of us, our internet must work quickly and efficiently to stay productive. The increasing demand for having reliable, quick internet coupled with new technology compatible with the internet has led to the creation of 5G, a new wireless internet connection. But many feel anxious about this new mobile network, wondering what impacts it may have on our health, privacy, and security. Learn all about 5G in today’s GKIS article.
What is 5G?
Introduced in 2019, 5G is the latest form of wireless internet connection. 5G will enhance internet connections and download speeds using “millimeter waves.” These waves are smaller and move faster than previously used 4G waves, allowing the space needed for the Internet of Things (IoT).
What is “IoT”?
IoT stands for the Internet of Things, which refers to wired and WiFi-connected home products that collect data about our daily behaviors. This data is then used to better target us for marketing, to improve services, and to make more efficient, informed decisions based on probability and statistics. Currently, we have 6.5 billion devices connected to the internet. It is estimated that by 2026, more than 75 billion devices will be connected to the internet generating $1.1 trillion a year.1
How will IoT be applied?
Consumer
Door locks, security cameras and monitors, home appliances, light fixtures, thermostats, smart televisions, smart refrigerators, media platforms, and voice-assisted digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google’s Google Assistant, and Microsoft’s Cortana will have the capacity to sense, analyze, and act as well as deliver data to the corporation for analysis, storage, and sharing.
Commercial
IoT is being applied to many industries, including the healthcare and automobile industries through the use of video training, building automation, security robots, pacemakers, wireless infusion pumps, and vehicle to vehicle communication (V2V). In 2019, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Dr. Antonio de Lacy guided a team of doctors operating on a patient through a live video from the other side of town.2 The video is clear, in real-time, and with no delays.
Military
Drones, robots, surveillance, and wearable biometrics are being implemented for warfare.
Industrial
Industrial applications of IoT include statistical evaluations of big data from manufacturing robots and smart farming. One study estimates IoT will replace up to 800 million farmworkers by 2030.3 Vertical farms and warehouses can produce the exact amount according to demand, rather than a surplus, and without the expense of employing workers.4
Infrastructure
Barcelona has embraced the development of becoming a “smart city” through the use of IoT. The results appear to have a positive impact on their economy, resulting in a $50 million per year revenue on smart parking alone. They have decreased their costs in energy consumption by $37 million a year using self-regulating lights, as well as saving $58 million a year with “smart gardens” that water plants at the right place and the right time.5
Security, Privacy, and the Internet of Things
We are headed for a paradigm shift, where our physical belongings are increasingly becoming computer systems. What was first “internet security” will be “everything security.” Unfortunately, most IoT software being manufactured and marketed is poorly written, insecure, and in the hands of corporations. Although you may trust the corporation with your data, do you trust the hackers who can breach that corporation’s controls to get access to it?
Security just isn’t a pressing concern for corporations and consumers. As consumers, we want inexpensive devices that work. Having insecure appliances connected to the internet like a thermometer, which is normally intended to last a long time, is dangerously allowing hackers the opportunity of exploitation.6 You might be able to get away with leaving the front door of your home unlocked, but in the cyberworld, every door can be attacked. Security professionals and hackers alike use what is known as wardriving to locate and record WiFi networks using a GPS.7
Wardriving is a GPS used to locate vulnerable and unprotected WiFi from a car. Problems arise when hackers recover the WiFi password through other connected smart devices.8 Thermometers, baby monitors, smart toys, surveillance cameras, and vehicles have been hacked in the past.9 More recently, throughout this pandemic, video conferencing Zoom applications have been hacked and banned all around the world because of poor security.10 Steps towards securing the IoT will need to be regulated, rather than patching the software for security after-the-fact, like Zoom.
Thank you to GKIS intern Andrew Weissmann for researching and authoring this article. To learn how to increase the cybersecurity in your home and identify the red flags that suggest your child may be in danger from bad actors online, check out our GKIS Cybersecurity and Red Flags Supplement. For less than a cup of coffee, you can be more informed and assured your family has adopted the best cyber-safety practices.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
We are consuming more online media than ever. A recent poll showed that 85% of adults receive their news through a mobile device. And 67% get their news from social media websites.[1] Still fresh in the minds of most Americans are the Internet propaganda attacks performed by Russian hackers. With sensational headlines, these hackers significantly affected the thoughts and beliefs of the American people. What would a hacker be able to accomplish if they could create videos of our heroes and celebrities performing any act they choose? What if we couldn’t distinguish real from fake? What if you or your family were targeted?
Deepfake Attacks Hollywood Celebrities
In December 2017, Reddit user Deepfakereleased a series of pornographic videos featuring Scarlett Johansson, Gal Gadot, Taylor Swift, and Aubrey Plaza. Using a process calledhuman image synthesis, the hacker created photorealistic images and video renditions of celebrity faces indistinguishable from the real thing.
To do this, he compiled multiple photos and videos of his victims and fed them into specialized software. An artificially intelligent (AI) algorithm then ran the data through multiple computations, training itself to perform the task. Deepfake trained his AI to convincingly swap celebrities’ faces with the faces of pornographic video actors. Voila! A Hollywood scandal was born.
How in the …
Computer-generated imagery(CGI) has been a staple of Hollywood special effects for decades. It’s been used to make cartoon toys come to life in Toy Story and turn people into wholly different creatures in The Lord of the Rings. The software and technology that made it possible for big Hollywood studios to put someone’s face onto a toy or Hobbit was incredibly expensive and laborious work. But now, anyone with a few thousand dollars can afford the computer and software necessary for Hollywood-quality special effects.
After the scandal, the deepfake community worked hard and fast to make face-swapping technology available to the masses.
In January 2018, only a month after the release of Deepfake’s videos online, an app was publicly released called Fakeapp. Fakeapp uses a machine learning tool called TensorFlow which was developed by Google AI. Fakeapp is free and relatively easy to use if you have a powerful enough computer. That means we are likely to see more victims and increasingly dangerous scenarios.
How to Implant False Memories
Not only can hackers create a fake event to trick us, but they can also impact our recollection of events. Memory isn’t simply a black-and-white retrieval system where information is accurately laid down and later retrieved from your brain’s database. Instead, memory is a reconstructive process. The original memory is impacted by several environmental and perceptual factors before being consolidated for memory storage. Our brains also modify the memory during each retrieval. This process is referred to as applying post-event misinformation. Post-event misinformation can dramatically affect attitudes and behavioral intentions.[2]
Post-event misinformation can be invisibly and intentionally created. In 2010, Slate Magazine released a series of political photos (some real, some fake) to approximately 1000 of its readers. They later asked those readers if they could remember the photos. The results were alarming. Readers inaccurately recalled 50% of the events in the faked photos. Fifteen percent of the time the readers could even recall emotions associated with the faked photos. The readers were even more likely to remember a faked photo when it fit their political view.[3]
Hollywood Magic Impacts World Security
Even before the recent deepfake celebrity scandal and Russian election meddling, there was deepfaking happening online with a dangerous political impact.
In September 2017, an Iranian video was released claiming the country had successfully launched a new ballistic missile. The video was, in fact, a failed missile launch filmed several months prior. President Trump believed the video was real and condemned the country of Iran for actions it did not commit. Iran responded claiming it would not tolerate any threats from the president. This faked missile launch further divided the two nations. Luckily, the mistake did not result in a military response. However, it clearly could have!
Considering the sophistication of digital technology, will we be able to tell the truth from fake quickly enough to prevent a global catastrophe in the future?
Government Intervention
The United States Government is reportedly working on it. A research group called SRI International has been awarded three contracts by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop tools capable of identifying whether a video or image has been altered and how the manipulations were performed.[4]
Other steps that can be taken to reduce the potential dangers of deepfakes are to equip photos and videos with a digital code that proves authenticity. Increasingly, websites are attending to fraudulent image and video activity and making special efforts for identification and removal.
Unsure if an image, video, or news report is fake? Get in the habit of searching for truth analysis on the popular website Snopes before you make false assumptions or forward deepfakes to friends or on social media.
Your Legal Rights
If you find yourself to be the victim of a video or image with your likeness, it is your legal right to act against it. Here are a few ways the legal system may apply to cases involving deepfakes.
Extortion – using deepfakes to force or threaten someone into obtaining something.
Harassment – using deepfakes to pressure or intimidate.
False Light – the invasion of privacy by utilizing a deepfake.
Defamation – damage to reputation due to deepfake.
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Stress – emotional stress caused by deepfake.
Right of Publicity – deepfake was produced and distributed without consent.
Copyright Infringement – facial image in deepfake is copyrighted material.
Thank you to CSUCI Intern, Dylan Smithson for giving us factual, interesting information to share with our kids during a screen-free dinner. Haven’t implemented that best-practice family habit yet?
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
I just got back from a podcast interview with AskaLoveGuru.com founder, Dr. Wendy Walsh, the perfect person with whom to discuss today’s scandal. Did you hear that hackers stole and threatened to publish user databases, financial records, and other proprietary information from the cheater website Ashley Madison (“Life is short. Have an affair”)? Over 37 million users could be affected!
News reports claim that hackers demanded that Avid Life Media take the AshleyMadison.com and EstablishedMen.com websites down or more information will be leaked. Public shaming unleashed!
The moment I heard this report I imaged hoards of trembling, middle aged adults being marched naked through the city by a twenty-something in Converse ringing a bell above his head yammering, “Shame … shame … shame” a la Game of Thrones.
How do you feel about this modern-day vigilante justice?
It turns out that the hackers are actually calling out Avid Life Media for reportedly charging members $19 to delete their profile and usage history, yet still maintaining name, address, and purchase details on their server. The threat from hackers calling themselves The Impact Team reads, “Too bad for those men, they’re cheating dirt bags and deserve no such discretion. Too bad for ALM, you promised secrecy but didn’t deliver.”
Is this justice or another form of cyber bullying? If you’re cheating on the Internet do you deserve to be publically outed? Will hitting Avid Life Media in the pocketbook assure more ethical corporate behavior in the future? Is this David calling out Goliath? What if these hackers were threatening to out KKK or NAMBLA members? Would that change your mind at all?
Public shaming has been on my mind often lately. And honestly I am a bit conflicted. I like to think that most of us manage our impulses from an internal sense of right and wrong. However, I’ve seen some really bad behavior lately from people whose conscience clearly went out for happy hour in the 80s and never came back. For those people it seems public shaming may be the sole source for limiting terrible behavior, cruelty that harms innocent others.
And I have to admit; I wasn’t above threatening public shame on my teenager to encourage her best judgment while she was in high school. My poor child was told on more than one occasion, being from my hometown, that Mom would hear of her public shenanigans should she have any temptations to have them. It mostly seemed to work too.
So here’s my main point. In general, I think using the Internet as a vehicle for public shame is evil. Show me an adult who doesn’t have regrets, and I’ll show you that their gray matter isn’t firing. Who’s right is it to judge?
Furthermore, the position of the person doing public shaming is often far from accurate. A single individual’s perspective is rarely the whole story. What if somebody decides to throw your name in the Ashley Madison list just for giggles? Or what if a hacker decides that you deserve a public lashing for your political views, your religion, or your hobbies? Does being controversial or having enemies justify a breach of your privacy? Or, even worse, extortion?
As a woman who values civil liberties, I abhor the idea of contemptuous computer geniuses being my judge and jury. After all, what gives the self-selected the moral high ground? As founder of GetKidsInternetSafe, I see ample evidence that Internet vigilante mobs are rarely on the side of what is accurate, compassionate, or just. Yet with so few effective Internet regulations, gaps are ripe for vigilante correction.
All in all, what’s most important is what happens in our own homes and communities. It’s about how we treat each other. Tonight we can be assured that many married couples had some interesting conversations about cheating and digital floggings; conversations that we all probably need to have more often, conversations that involve true intimacy, digital privacy, and why we should beware of the dangerous power of the Internets.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetYourKidsInternetSafe.
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Remi Ali Khan for researching cybercrimes and cybersecurity for this article.
