Teaching Internet security, safety in our classrooms.

Teaching Internet security, safety in our classrooms. THERE IS A MISCONCEPTION: "KIDS KNOW MORE than We Do About theInternet." Do teens know more than their parents and teachers abouthow to use the Internet? Teens may be more familiar with the latest blogor social networking" site; however, with 56 percent of teensposting personal information (McAfee, 2010) on the Internet and childpredators and criminals looking for tins information I think not. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Here is the wakeup call: The FBI has made cybercrime its numberthree priority (fbi.gov, 2010), following terrorism andcounterintelligence. In addition, cyber criminals are scraping thesocial networking sites, using the automated free tools available on theInternet, to collect the personal information posted by social networkusers so they can more easily com mil crimes. On the bright side, manyof the issues can be mitigated with a few simple steps to increase thedifficulty of criminals gaining access to our personal information, andpotentially us. Educators Need to Take the Lead Internet security is an important topic for educators due tocurriculums now incorporating tools such as the Internet, Google docs,e-portfolios and course management systems. Those tools require studentsto spend more time online, where they are susceptible to manipulation orintimidation if they do not stay on task. Kids of all ages lackemotional maturity. They also need attention and validation; combinethat with their extreme lack of caution, and a broadband connection, andwe now have a big problem. The problem is best described with terms coined by Marc Prensky(2001). He referred to people who did not grow up with the Internet asthe Internet Immigrants (over 30 years of age), and the Internet Nativesare those who grew up with the Internet (under 30 years of age). Theproblem is that the immigrants are raising the natives and assume thenatives know what they are doing because they have so much interest inthe latest technology. Unfortunately, the focus is on obtaining andusing the bells and whistles of the new technology, rather than thedangers that come along with it. Immigrants raising natives is not a new situation. For example, inthe early 1900s when immigrants arrived from oilier parts of the world,they needed to focus more on feeding their families than educating theirchildren. They accomplished this by sending young children to workinstead of school--obviously dangerous, but probably necessary. Lawswere then created to make sure all children attended school. Our societycannot wait for Internet safety to be a required part of the curriculumor depend solely on parents who may not have the knowledge to leachInternet safely. Why is it Suddenly OK to Talk to Strangers? Technology has allowed us to obtain knowledge in a most efficientway. However, utilizing that technology is also leaving us vulnerable toexploitation. We tell our children not to talk to strangers, yet that isexactly what they are doing on the Internet. As mentioned earlier, morethan half of teens are posting personal information such as name, ageand address, and are chatting with people they have met in chat roomsand social networking sites. The Internet is misleading in that peopleuse it in seclusion, feeling somewhat anonymous and sale when they posttheir personal accounts and photos. People are posting where they live,not only with text, but with the photos taken from their smartphones.Taking pictures using mobile phones with GPS capability will embed thelongitude and latitude of where the photo was taken. Therefore, if youpost a photo on a social networking site taken In front of your houseusing your smartphone, and mention von are going on vacation next weekor that you work every day you have just sent an open invitation to aburglar. Online Predators There are not enough FBI agents in locate and arrest every onlinepredator. Therefore, it is important for educators to teach young peopleof all ages about the dangers of the Internet. A great resource foreducators to teach kids of all ages about Internet safety isnetsmartz.org. This Web site contains content (videos, Power-Points andactivities) for parents, teachers and children of all ages that helps tostress Important issues such as: never meet someone in person that theyhave met online, or give out personally identifying Information.Monitoring a child's technology use can be overwhelming. The FBIsuggests a few signals to determine if a child is a target of an onlinepredator: * Child spends large amounts of time online. * Child receives phone calls from people you don't know. * Child turns monitor off when yon come into the room. * Child becomes withdrawn from the family. * Child receives gifts through the mail (bus tickets, mobilephones, Web cams). The FBI suggests keeping computers in a common room. Think hardbefore buying a device that has Internet capabilities. Set ground rulesfir use if purchased. Communicate with kids about the potential dangerson the Internet. Use real examples that will resonate with kids. Asuggestion specifically for parents is to maintain access and randomlycheck their children's activities on any social network and e-mailaccounts. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Teens and Mobile Phones The two main problems that are in the limelight right now regardingkids and mobile phones are sexting and texting while driving. LG MobilePhones sponsored a study surveying 1,017 teens. The study showed that 45percent of teens admit to texting while driving, and 41 percent admit tosome form of sexting (sent, received, or forwarded a text with sexualcontent). Eight students from a Pennsylvania high school recentlylearned a tough lesson about sexting. The teens, who all knew oneanother, were accused of using their mobile phones to take and send nudephotographs of one another, resulting in a felony pornography charge foreach of the teens (Miller and Hirschkorn, 2010). Some teens do notrealize sexting is against the law. Even if they are familiar with thelaw, they may not think they will get caught. They need a reminder thatonce von send something out, you can't take it back; there is alsoa chance that whatever they are sending can become viral (each personsending to another and so on). No one would argue that texting while driving is an extremeproblem. There are laws in some stales outlawing texting while driving.However, laws are not enough, since people can hide the phone while theyare texting or again, do not think they will get caught. Granted, oncean accident occurs, texting can be verifier simply by analyzing themobile phone. Obviously, at this point it is too late; the accident hasoccurred. It would be their children's mobile phones that eitherprevents texting while driving, or redirects phone calls and texts(using GPS to determine speed). A number of companies have alreadyannounced various solutions to prevent texting while driving (Purdy,2010). Another solution is setting expectations and rules for cell phoneusage; sometimes the teens engage in this behavior because they thinkmom and dad aren't checking the phone. Talk to teens about thelegal ramifications of sexting and texting while driving. Viruses Viruses are not a new problem, but they are certainly a biggerproblem than ever before. In the past, hackers needed a high skill leveleven to create a relatively simple virus. Now, due to the extensiveknowledge base on the Internet, very sophisticated viruses can becreated with a relatively low skill level. Users can mitigate thisproblem just by being cognizant of the latest seam. One way to avoid avirus is don't be so quick to click! Pop-up windows that promptusers to download antivirus software or claim that they will scan yourcomputer for malware are probably scams. Clicking on them could installthe malware on your computer. Sometimes these FakeAV (Fake Antivirus,Rogue Antivirus. ScareWare) are sent directly to the victim as anattachment or as a link in a spam e-mail message (SOPHOS, 2010). Thee-mail message will prompt a riser to visit a. Web site where they willbe asked to pay for the elimination of the nonexistent virus. Phishing Scams Another danger to Internet users is phishing scams. Users are luredto provide personal information, typically through e-mail and instantmessaging. Criminals use botnets (robot networks), to perpetuatephishing scams. Botnets are multiple computers that are infected with avirus that enable a single hacker to remotely control the infectedcomputers to send out e-mails. The botnet will enable thousands ofe-mails to be sent out appearing to come from a legitimate source. Thee-mail will ask for sensitive personal information that some victimswill provide. For example, if you receive a message from what appears tobe a bank, you should avoid replying to the e-mail and avoid clicking onany links. This is a common phishing scam designed to convince you thatyour money is at risk. Other scams attempt to trick you into clicking onlinks by promising huge profits for little or no investment. These are all forms of online "social engineering," aterm popularized by hacker turned consultant Kevin Mitnik. Socialengineering is a non-technical intrusion that relies on manipulatingpeople into divulging confidential information. Cyber criminals findways to trick users into providing sensitive information such aspasswords via e-mail, instant messaging and social networking sites.Another example of a social engineering scam is e-mail messagesimitating a network administrator attempting to fix your e-mail or bankaccount. "Free" Applications As we should know--nothing is free. The applications you can get onsocial networking sites or on the Web for your smartphone may be costingyou your personal information. Even if you are using social networkingwith the strictest privacy settings, your information is not safe.Recently it was discovered that Facebook apps have been providing userpersonal information to dozens of advertising and Internet trackingcompanies (Steel and Fowler, 2010). It seems that cyber criminals are also targeting smartphones. Thisis for a couple of reasons: sales of smartphones have increased over thepast year, and it is convenient for users and developers to download andcreate applications for their smartphones. In addition, the mobile-phoneoperating systems are unsophisticated in regulating access to privateinformation such as name and location of the phone user (Enck et. al.,2010). An inter-university team of researchers developed an applicationcalled TaintDroid that determines if a smart-phone application capturesusers' private information. The researchers randomly selected 30applications and found that two-thirds of the applications suspiciouslyhandled the user's sensitive information. In addition, half of theapplications they tested sent the user's location to remoteadvertising servers (Enck et.al., 2010). This may make teens think twiceabout downloading the cute Disney wallpaper for their phones. Looking Ahead The technology that is available to students and educators can be avery effective way to enhance curriculum and instruction. However, theeducator needs to take a part in the responsibility of teaching thestudents how to use the technology safely. Our students are the nextgeneration of our workforce, and these are additional life skills thatneed to be taught. Internet safety should be taught as proactively asour wood and metal shop teachers taught us safety in junior high beforewe used the circular and table saws: the predators and cyber criminalsare just as dangerous. References Enck, W, Gilbert, P, Chun, B., Cox, L., Jung, J., McDaniel, P.,Sheth, A. (2010). "TaintDroid: An Information-Flow Tracking Systemfor Realtime Privacy Monitoring on Smartphones." Prensky, M. (2001, October). "Digital Natives, DigitalImmigrants," On the Horizon, MCB University Press, Vol. 9, No. 5. Purdy, J. (2010, March). "Inside Mobile: Using MobileTechnology to Prevent Texting While Driving," Enterprise Mobility. SOPHOS. (May 2010). "What is FakeAV?" A Sophos whitepaper. McAfee. "The Secret Online Lives of Teens." Steel, E., Fowler, G. (2010, Oct. 18). "Facebook in PrivacyBreach," The Wall Street Journal. Myers, D. (2010, Sept. 25). "Popularity of Social NetworkingSites Leads to More Home Burglaries," Bucks County Courier Times. Acohido, B. (2010, July 30). "Banks Seek Customers' Helpto Stop Online Thieves," USA TODAY. Acohido, B. (2010, Aug. 3). "Cybercrooks Use Web Apps toInfiltrate Smartphones," USA TODAY. Miller, M., Hirschkorn, P. (2010, June 5). "Sexting Leads toChild Porn Charges for Teens." CBS News. Joanna F. DeFranco, Ph.D., is assistant professor of softwareengineering, Penn State University School of Graduate ProfessionalStudies. She can be contacted at jfd104@psu.edu.