Internet Safety and Cyber Resilience

In the digital world that our children now live in it is vital that we as parents understand who our children are talking to and what our children are doing when connected to the internet. Below are some terms, explanations and links to information for parents and carers on what to look out for on the internet.

Internet Safety

Internet Safety is the knowledge of maximizing the user’s personal safety and security risks on private information and property associated with using the internet.

Cyber Resilience

Cyber resilience is for individuals or organisations to be able to prepare for, withstand, rapidly recover and learn from deliberate attacks or accidental events in the online world .

It also means developing understanding of issues like:

Passwords
How we communicate
Phishing
Identity theft
Digital Footprint
Digital Citizenship
Copyright

As a parent or carer what are the simplest skills you can teach your child to be cyber resilient?

Make sure your passwords are complex. Avoid dictionary words, use a mixture of upper and lower case letters, special characters and numbers.
Make sure your passwords are long. A password made of 8 random upper case letters (with no dictionary words) can be hacked in a matter of days. But if you add just 2 extra characters, to make it 10 characters long, it will be 676 times harder to crack, taking a computer programme years instead of days to solve. Check your password strength here.
Avoid re-using the same password for different accounts or devices.
Always install updates. You should always try to install updates as soon as they are available for any of your devices, apps or programmes.
Don’t send money or give out personal information in response to an unexpected request.
Be careful when using public Wi-Fi and shared computers. Avoid connecting to unsecured public Wi-Fi networks. If you do use Wi-Fi on a shared network, avoid logging into emails/online banking etc.
If you think that you have been a victim of hacking or fraud, report it. Contact Action Fraud here, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cyber security. You can also check here to see if your email address has been compromised.