If you have come this far, you probably have school-age children who are starting or have been using electronic devices connected to the network for some time. Today I want to explain how I think your child can become a cyber expert in the very near future, taking advantage of the virtues of the new generations and why he/she should become a cyber expert. ?
They no longer come with a bread under their arms
When our children come into the world, they no longer do so with a bread under their arms, as we used to say in previous decades, but with a cell phone or a Tablet; they are Generation Z ?. They have already been born in the digital era and spend many hours connected to their mobiles…
I remember when my children were 2 years old, they already looked like digital natives when they watched their favorite cartoon videos on the iPad or on my Android phone. Scrolling through the videos, pausing them, going backwards… there were things that even I didn’t know how to do, and I’ve been working in the ICT world for more than 20 years!
Immediacy is their weak point
The democratized access to technology and immediacy, make that despite being able to be connected with many more people at the same time, they do not have the attention that is due to each conversation and this is a weak point that cybercriminals can take advantage of. It is for this reason that I believe that your child should (it is a “MUST”) become a cyber-expert; so that no cyber-criminal will slip through the cracks. ⛔️
Tip #1: How they can protect themselves? Suspect!
They can do this by taking advantage of their strong point: their irreverence. It is irreverence that makes them question absolutely everything, before clicking on a link, they should think if it is really going to take them where they want or if there is something that can make them suspect where that link is going.
Remember the expression: nobody gives a penny for a nickel? Or updated: Nobody gives 1 euro for 99 cents? Well, that’s it: they should question if someone tells them that they are going to give them something for free by clicking on a link because that will never happen, if it is not with a consideration or possible cyber-attack. ?
Tip #2: Enabling two-step authentication (MFA)
As they have their digital identity marked by their social networks, the first thing they should do is to activate two-step authentication (MFA) in all of them (Twitch, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc…). That way if by any chance someone steals their username and password of that social network it will not be possible to enter them and impersonate them. What will happen in this case is that they will receive a push message on their cell phone informing them that someone from the city next door is trying to access their account and they will be able to block access immediately.
Tip #3: Track the files we receive
In addition to protecting themselves on social networks, another way for cybercriminals to attack is to send us files to download locally ?. Your child can scan this file, for example with virustotal or the antivirus installed on his laptop before executing it. What he/she will achieve is to avoid (to give a very simple example) the installation of a keylogger ?.
A keylogger is a program that listens to what keys you press on your computer and along with that keylogger, usually runs another program that sends that list of keys to a server of the bad guys. What do they get with this? Well, users and passwords to access any web portal for example.
Tip #4: Common sense
I don’t want to go on too much longer and I’ll get to the point: wherever your child sees something that doesn’t fit, he/she should always ask you or an adult. It is not about being afraid of any link that is sent to them, but to check if it is suspicious or seems illegal.
I think that with these 4 little tips for your child or even for you, who are reading me right now, is enough as a starting point to start becoming a cyber expert, they are very basic things that we do not fall into until suddenly we start to slow down the mobile or the computer or strange movements appear in the bank account…
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Joan Rodríguez
Santander Global T&O
I am a superior computing engineer and I have had a great chance of working in all waterfall or agile development profiles: Developer, SW Architect, SW Evangelist, Scrum Master, Project Manager, Team Leader, QA Tester and Product Owner. I consider myself to be restless, resilient, geek and mostly, family-oriented. Currently, I am making cybersecurity developments for Group Santander.
