Security Tips

Cyber Bullying

What

Cyber bullying involves the use of information and communication technologies such as email, cell phones, social media channels or personal websites by group or individuals for the purpose of harming others. With the growth of technology and technological skills, cyber bullying behavior is becoming more evident in school and college age populations.

How

Cyber bullying can occur in so many ways, however its most famous forms are:

• Put-downs: Posting harmful, untrue or cruel messages about a person to others
• Exclusion: Intentionally excluding a person from an online group such as WhatsApp and online chats group
• Outing & Trickery: Sending or posting sensitive, private or embarrassing information about a person
• Flaming: Sending angry, rude or vulgar messages directed to a person or a chat group
• Masquerading: pretending to be someone else and posting or sending information that make that person looks bad or places that person in danger
• Harassment: repeatedly sending a person offensive messages
• Cyberstalking: harassment that is highly intimidating or includes threats of harm

Fact

At least 85 per cent of UAE schoolchildren have been bullied, mostly online 2019 survey, gulf new

Safeguards

• Tell them to stop/Block them: Be brave and tell the person who bullies you to stop. If you remain silent you’re basically telling them that it’s ok to do it. Use the block option to prevent having conversations with him
• Collect Evidence: You need to collect as much evidences as you can in case talking verbally to them wouldn’t work. Take screenshots or voice records, it would be easier for an adult to help if he has a proof of what exactly have been said
• Report it: If the bullied was your college from school, report his behavior to the school management. In case it was a person from social media or a game, use the report option given in these apps. Or much effectively report to one of the known hotline for bullying and abuse in your country.
• Don’t encourage it: If you saw someone who bullies others don’t encourage his behavior or stay behind without any action. Step ahead and report him to prevent this kind of behavior in your community

Online Shopping threats

What

Online shopping Threats are all types of security risks that might occur while consumers buy goods or services from a seller in real-time over the Internet.

How

By using various smart methods and tools, it became much easier for cybercriminals to get their hands on your sensitive information or steal your money.

Potential risks of online shopping
1. Identity Theft (Most common)
   By monitoring your online activities criminals can get hold of your personal information and then use the information to make personal purchases. famous ways of getting your information are the Phishing Emails from banks that requires your personal information or Spy apps that record activities using the keylogging feature.
2. Credit card fraud
   In some situations, in order to steal the credit card details, cybercriminals intercept the online stores at the payment portal to redirect the consumers to a malicious identical gateway instead of the legitimate payment gateway.
3. Adware & Malware
   These are basically the appealing ads that pops up in your screen while surfing the internet, as soon as a user clicks on these ads, the ad requires them to register and submit their personal details.
4. Fake online stores
   The Internet is full of fake online stores and pages that trick people into purchasing products. There have been various incidents where buyers never got what they ordered and spent money in the online transaction

Fact

Shoppers in the UAE lost more than Dh321 million to online scams according to a new security report by Norton

Safeguards

• Use familiar and trusted websites for online shopping
• Never buy anything online using your credit card from a site that doesn't have SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption installed. (You'll know if the site has SSL because the URL for the site will start with HTTPS instead of just HTTP)
• Don’t overshare your personal details. No online shopping site needs your Emirates ID number or your birthday to complete a transaction.
• Use unique and strong passwords for your accounts while shopping online
• Avoid shopping in public but if you had to shop via a public hotspot, use known networks to be in a safe side
• Avoid excessive online consumption and don’t become a victim for those who sell useless goods (probably you won’t need) for overrated prices

Privacy abuse

What

Privacy abuse is the practice of exploiting other people’s private information for the purpose of threatening (blackmail), abusing or defamation.

How

Privacy abuse could occur in so many faces:

• Abusers use the following features in social media to gather information of their victims
• Hacking your personal devices in order to obtain personal data such as pictures, conversations or bank account details.
• Deceiving younger kids in online games in order to obtain their personal information or belongings (parents name, home address, pictures or even money and expensive possessions)

Fact

Punishment of blackmailing by law in the UAE:

As per Article 16 of the Cybercrime Law, the perpetrator shall be punished by a jail term of no less than two years and a fine ranging between Dh25,000 and Dh500,000 or one of those two penalties. The crime could bear a penalty of up to 10 years in jail if the perpetrator threatens to disgrace the victim

Safeguards

• Online activities of younger kids and those with special needs such as (people of determination) should be monitored in order to know who are they following, playing with or talking to
• Kids should be educated and advised to be careful from online strangers. You can download MOCD’s “conscious generation” booklet to simplify online security instructions for your kids
• In social media’s accounts, use the privacy settings to manage the list of followers
• Avoid defamations and respect the privacy of others to prevent revenge and being in their shoes.
• Avoid publishing your personal pictures, current location, home address, your full name and birthday
• Use strong passwords for all your devices and personal accounts, and make sure to change them regularly.
• Report any type of abuse or exploit of your privacy on the number of the Digital Security Incidents Platform 80091

Phishing

What

It is a form of fraud or electronic theft where the acquisition of personal or financial data or information through e-mails or counterfeit sites.

Some types of phishing:
• Spear phishing: In this type of attack, the attacker first collects information about the victim (eg. names of friends or family members) and then basing on this data constructs a message whose main task is to convince the victim to visit a malicious website or download a malicious file.
• Clone phishing: an attacker will use a previously sent, legitimate email and copy its contents into a similar one containing a link to a malicious site. The attacker might then claim that this is an updated or new link, maybe stating that the old one has expired.

How

Victims are lured through communications using multiple channels (Voice calls, Email, WhatsApp, SMS and Social media platforms) impersonating Banks, Police or the CB or others. These communications have embedded links which when clicked, either ask for personal information or a malware establishes itself on the potential victim’s device.

Fact

Spear phishing emails are the most popular targeted attack vector

Symanetc’s Internet Security Threat Report 2019 shows spear phishing emails are used by almost two-thirds (65 percent) of all known groups carrying out targeted cyber-attacks. The report also tells us that 96 percent of targeted attacks are carried out for the purpose of intelligence gathering.

Safeguards

• Never trust warning emails
• Do not open any attachments in these suspicious or strange emails; Especially Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDF attachments.
• If you suspect that the email message is a hoax, do not open any links that you see. place the mouse but do not click the link to see if the title matches the link typed in the message
• Never divulge or share any sensitive information i.e. banking details, OTP, PIN, credit card information, etc.

Internet addiction

What

In this type of addiction, the addict person uses the Internet on a daily and excessive basis; where it conflicts with his daily life and his duties, and makes the Internet world more important to him from the family, and friends, which negatively affects him and creates a kind of tension and anxiety.

Causes

• The desire to get rid of negative feelings or curiosity; and love to experience or improve mood.
• The free time experienced by the individual, which leads to feeling bored and causes him to use the Internet excessively.

How

• The number of hours in front of the Internet is increasing excessively
• Control of a state of extreme tension and anxiety in the event that there is any obstacle to connect to the network.
• Neglecting social, family and employment duties
• Sitting suddenly from sleep and open e-mail, see the list of callers, or play electronic games

Fact

The severity of the electronic addiction is considered so severe; that the effort of those working on the treatment of electronic addiction is 70% higher than the effort made in the treatment of drug addiction (Al-Ghafri, Al-Ru'ya newspaper 2019)

Safeguards

• Setting a plan for all days of the week to clearly define how many hours are allocated to use the Internet. In the long run, this behavior generates a sense of the individual's ability to control the use of the Internet.
• Don’t leave the person alone for a long time, that is, to sit with him and talk to him and try to create a beautiful social atmosphere that helps to get rid of the problem of Internet addiction.

Social Network incidents

What

Social networks are websites and apps designed to allow people to share content quickly and efficiently. One of its most prominent features is that it allows creating personal accounts for users and enables individuals to contact other users, whether they are friends, followers, groups or other characteristics.
with the significant increase in the number of Social networks users, various threats to data security and user privacy increased with it.

How

People use to provide their personal data on social network platforms like Facebook, twitter etc. This data is stored in those application which might lack of proper security techniques. For example:

• In Identity Theft

Some of the attackers’ attack through the application in which they ask permission for accessing the information provided in the profile. When a user allows to do so, they get all the information and can misuse that easily without the user knowledge or permissions.

Fact

Social media cyber-attacks are the major threat for businesses in 2019 (Jayde Walker)

Safeguards

• Limit the amount of personal information you post. Do not disclose information such as your residential address or information about your upcoming schedule or your daily routine.
• Use a strong password that hackers can hardly know or guess.
• Use the 2-step verification factor for each account, it adds another layer of protection
• Review carefully the friendship requests that come before accepting them