Protecting Children While They Are Online

Now that kids are on summer vacation, it’s highly likely that they will be on the computer, smartphone, or tablet a lot more than usual.  As parents, it’s our jobs to keep them safe and to protect their privacy.  When your child downloads a new app, please review the app and ask yourself the following questions:

1. Who decides which apps your child downloads?

Consider using parental control apps and restriction setting on the devices.  To find parental control apps, search for “parental control” in the app store to find an app that meets your needs.  On the computer, smartphone, or tablet the parental control option is usually in the settings menu.

2. Is he app legitimate? If so, what information does the app collect, and what does it do with that information?

There’s a couple of ways this can be accomplished.  First, research the app to see how many people downloaded it and check the user’s rating.  If it looks suspicious then don’t download the app.  Second, read the privacy policies, terms of use, and permissions to familiarize yourself with the data’s policy to help you feel comfortable letting your child download the app.

3. Is the app complying with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)?

COPPA requires the app to get parental consent before they collect or share certain information from children under the age of 13.  The Federal Trade Commission enforces COPPA, and encourages parents to report apps that are breaking the rules.

4. How does the app make money?

Some app developers make money by charging users when they download the app while other apps are free to download but cost money while using the app.  If the app is a game and your child needs money to unlock the next level, more than likely you will be paying to use what you thought was a free app.

5. Are you familiar with the device’s security settings, online safety basics, and cyberbullying?

To keep you up to date on all these topics by researching the following:

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse Fact Sheets:

-   Privacy in the Age of the Smartphone

-   Online Privacy: Using the Internet Safely

-   Social Networking Privacy: How to be Safe, Secure and Social

-   Securing Your Computer to Maintain Your Privacy

Common Sense Media

-   Cyberbullying

-   Internet Safety

Federal Trade Commission:

-   Kids and Mobile Phones

Researcher at Symantec have detected a new type of Ransomware

Ransomware is now targeting mobile devices and it looks like an anti-virus application.  Once the application has been installed, some users may see the following results:

1) many users will not have the capability to uninstall the malicious app because the malware will attempt to prevent other apps from being launched

2) the threat will also change the setting of the operating system which can lead some users with the inability to perform a factory data reset

Ransomware is a pay per install program from many criminals. It scams people out of money and for every install the criminals earn a double payday.  Ransomware encrypts valuable data such as images, music, documents, and passwords.  Even though this program is poorly created, it prevents legit security application from working properly and limiting Web access.

Cybercriminals Use Zeus Trojan to Target Job Seekers With Mule Recruitment Ads

Researchers have found a version of Zeus using man-in-the-browser techniques to present visitors to job hunting site CareerBuilder.com with an ad user should ignore because it's a mule for recruitment site.

These ads are made to entice descriptions of easy money from a simple work-at-home jobs that lure job seekers to contact the employer to unknowingly serve as the money laundering component of a cyber crime gang.  This week, federal authorities have charges wight people for being part of a money laundering operation that was involved in the attempt to theft over $15 million from banking customer in the U.S.

Employment website noticed that they were being used for this type of operations, they are offering easy ways for users to report suspicious ads.  They have also created security teams to detect and remove these ads from their websites.

Hello Everyone,

My name is Monica Batts.  I've been in the U.S. Military for 17 years now and I have been all around the world.  I'm currently stationed in Guam.  I'm in the process of achieving my immediate goal of obtaining a Master's degree in Cyberspace Security.  When I retire, I'm planning on moving to Houston, Texas.