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cybercrime

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Nowadays, most of us don’t remember the pre-Internet era clearly. Since we are all living in a complex digital world, making the Internet one of the basic human rights, the United Nations declared that the Internet has given us the impeccable level of the freedom of expression and moreover, provided us with the endless possibilities for the development and prosperity of the whole mankind.

However, at the same time, the Internet became the floodgate for all kinds of crimes and fraudsters, which basically turned cybercrime into the fastest growing crime in the world. No matter, whether you’re shopping, chatting with someone or just looking for any kind of information, you may never know who’s on the other end. Kids tend to be more vulnerable to Internet threats if compared to adults, thus we will provide you with the best Internet safety tips every parent should know.

Learn More Yourself


Recent studies show that most of the modern-day parents are likely to be considered Internet-savvy, however, when it comes to the basic Internet safety rules, there’s a clear lack of knowledge in this area. You would only be able to protect your child only in the case you know something about the safety online yourself. You can find plenty of information on the topic online. For example, the US non-profit organization Tech Corps created the list of most-useful Internet safety resources that will help you educate yourself and your kid. There are also such useful websites like SafeKids.org.

Educate your Kid
The best thing you can do for your kids about online defense is to educate them properly. A kid that knows a lot more is not as vulnerable as it may seem. There are a whole bunch of precautions that can be taken to help your kid stay safe online:

  • Never ever let your kid make friends online – one of the most valid points is not to make any friends online. Getting acquainted in real life is among those vital precautions you may take to keep your child safe unless you know someone in person. This does not apply to school friends, next-door kids or brothers, and sisters.

  • Set Up Privacy Setting on Social Media Accounts – teach your kids to set up their social media accounts restricted from everyone’s access and moreover, to check from time to time whether it works properly or not. Leaving your kid’s account open makes him or her a  perfect target for online threats.

  • Avoid Posting Personal Information Elsewhere – you, as a parent, should be extremely careful with what is posted on your kid’s personal social media page. For instance, any content you post can be retweeted or reposted without your permission and you basically lose control over that information. Make sure to turn off Location Settings for both Twitter and Facebook, another lead to get your kid tracked.

  • Deactivate Old Accounts your Kid might have – the list is not only limited to the social media accounts only. God knows how much of personal information could be leaking from the old game profiles, sites like Netflix or Lego-forums. Make sure to remove everything that is not used and you are aware of.

  • Teach them the Basic Knowledge of Critical Thinking – teach your kids to think critically and recognize possible threats they might come across while being online along with not taking anything at a face value.

Don’t Ban Technology

There’s nothing worse for your kid than being cut off from the Internet access, even though you think it is a wise move. You will not gain great results if any at all. Moreover, the kids will probably serf the Internet at their friend’s home or at school, behind your back. In case you fail to help them with answering their questions, they would have no other option but search for the answers online. The Internet can be truly considered one of the inventions that helped the whole humankind to develop as faster as never before. All you need to do is to allow your kids to use it wisely for educational and entertainment purposes.


Set Up Parental Controls Why banning the whole Internet access for your kid when you are able to restrict access to the most sensitive content available online: violence, erotic scenes or simply the content you don’t want your kid to be aware of. All of the most popular streaming services like Netflix, Youtube, Disney or HBO have parental control options available. The same relates to videogames, browsers, and smartphones. You are even able to lock the certain IP address to block the access for your kid. In case you’re not tech-savvy, get help from your local Internet providers, they will be more than happy to help you out with that.

Set Up House Rules and Stimulate Open Communication

Gain trust and become a true friend for your kid. Modern children are pretty well-educated for their age and might know much more than their parents. Especially when it comes to navigating on the Internet and breaking restrictions. Let your kid know to appreciate the rules you set up for the basic Internet safety precautions and explain why obeying them is vitally important. Open communication will help your kid to follow the rules that were installed.

What to Do in Case you Think your Kid is in Danger?

The first thing you should do about that is to identify the kind of threat your kid is affected by. There is a whole bunch of options possible online. In case your kid is being bullied online, it would be a nice chance for you to step in and find the parents of that bully to put out the flame before it gets worse. Online scam or dangerous contacts with a stranger is a lot different story. Once you identify the threat, try to do reverse person lookup on Nuwber and pass the information to the law enforcement authorities.

In conclusion, we would like to stress the fact that the Internet may be quite a dangerous place nowadays in case it’s not treated with care and attention. With the help of the mentioned above, you would reduce the risk of any threats for your kid to minimum.

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Crime Scene – Do Not Cross

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You should never underestimate the manifold ways in which crime can affect your business in a big way. It’s not just the immediate equipment losses and financial hits you have to concern yourself with. You also need to consider this from the point of view of your employees and your customers.

Falling victim to a crime can actually result in employees and customers losing faith in you. Employees will wonder if they’re actually safe at this job. Customers may wonder if their money and personal information are safe with you! The sort of crimes your business could be hit with could result in a lot of lost productivity and a mountain of legal issues, especially if there’s undetected fraud going on.

Here are the top three crime areas that every business should be concerning themselves with.

Trespassing

When people talk about the sort of crimes that can happen to your business, this is usually the first thing they’ll think of. This is fairly generic non-employee crime, as some people know it. It’s the primary crime concern of the vast majority of businesses, and rightly so: it’s still the most common crime committed against them.

Wikipedia

For businesses that have customers on-site, such as stores and restaurants, the threat is almost constant. It’s vital that you have a strong CCTV system set up. You should also ensure that people know that you have CCTV that is carefully monitored. On-site security guards must also be around to prevent this.

For other businesses that have offices locked from the public, it may seem that there’s not much reason to worry. And, sure, theft is certainly a lot less likely to occur to such a business. But breaking and entering is still very much possible if you don’t have a security system in place. But not all trespassing comes in this form. Many businesses fall victim to someone simply walking into the office, with no-one questioning their presence (assuming that they’re accounted for by another employee). This leaves the business vulnerable to many data risks that can lead to information leaks and even fraud. Again, a mountain of legal problems could affect you if this happens!

Cybercrime

Your business probably uses computers that are hooked up to the Internet. And guess what? That means you’re always a potential target for cybercriminals! This isn’t something you should just shrug off. You may not think a small business such as yours would fall victim to cybercrime. But the kind of records and customer data that even a small business keeps will mean that cybercriminals aren’t always looking to target bigger companies.

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A lot of cases of fraud occur due to cybercrime. When a cybercriminal hacks into a small business’s network, they may get access to the credit information of all your customers, as well as the personal information of you and your employees. If they so choose, they could also infect your network with viruses.

The possibility of fraud, particularly credit card fraud and identity theft, should worry you. Thankfully, there are plenty of things you can do to help prevent this. In the specific case of identity fraud, there are preventative services out there that can help you. If you don’t know which one to sign up with, take a look at these reviews. Of course, you’ll also have to look into the usual methods of online protection: strong WiFi passwords, anti-viruses software, firewalls, a protect backup copies of all your data.

Flickr

Employee crime

Leaves a pretty bad taste in the mouth, doesn’t it? Employee crime. Is it less desirable than any other crime? Perhaps. For one, it damages your sense of trust in a way that the other forms of crime don’t. It also means that, along with the immediate effect of the crime committed against you, you’ll also probably lose the employee! And employees, after all, are at once your most expensive and valuable asset.

Unfortunately, you do have to have measures in place to prevent employee crime from occurring. While we don’t want to make you paranoid, it’s simply a fact that employees are always in the best position to commit a crime against your business! Businesses have sometimes found themselves being embezzled by their employees for several years before they realize what’s going on.

Pixabay

The ways to prevent employee crime begin at the recruitment stage. You should ensure you’re doing your best to hire trustworthy people. You should consider running criminal background checks on employees. Making sure there’s CCTV in locations where only staff can go is a must. Many business owners make the mistake of only placing such security measures in areas where customers are allowed.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping met President Barack Obama at the White House during his trip in the US.

The two presidents have said they will take new steps to address cybercrime.

Speaking at a joint news conference at the White House, Barack Obama said they had agreed that neither country would engage in cyber economic espionage.

The deal covers the theft of trade secrets but not national security information.

Xi Jinping also pledged to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Barack Obama said any escalation in China’s alleged cybercrimes against the US would prompt sanctions.Xi Jinping state visit White House

“It has to stop,” he said.

“The question is now, are words followed by action?”

Reflecting on the use of sanctions against either individuals, businesses or state-run companies, Barack Obama said: “We will apply those, and whatever other tools we have in our tool kit, to go after cybercriminals either retrospectively or prospectively.”

Both countries deny taking part in the cybertheft of commercial secrets.

Xi Jinping said the two countries would not “knowingly support” such practices and said they would both abide by “norms of behavior” in cyberspace.

“Confrontation and friction are not the right choice for both sides,” said Xi Jinping, speaking through a translator.

The cybertheft of intellectual property designed to benefit Chinese industry was described by former National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander as “the greatest transfer of wealth in history”.

US officials have alleged that the Chinese state was behind a massive data security breach of government databases as well as attacks on private firms. That kind of breach is not covered by this deal.

Barack Obama thanked Xi Jinping for introducing a cap-and-trade emissions trading system to limit greenhouse gas production.

The White House on September 25 put out a fact sheet on the US and China’s joint national carbon emissions trading scheme set to launch in 2017.

The “cap-and-trade” scheme would see Chinese companies charged to emit pollutants beyond a certain level.

China said it would commit $3.1 billion to help developing countries reduce carbon emissions, along with other initiatives outlined in the fact sheet that would align China’s climate work with that of the US.

There were also areas of sharp disagreement.

Barack Obama expressed concerns about the growing tensions in the South China Sea and criticized China’s human rights record, saying that preventing lawyers, journalists and others from operating freely is an obstacle to China living up to its potential.

Over 40,000 firms, including energy providers, banks and hospitals could be required to report cyber-break-ins under new rules proposed by the EU.

It is part of a move to intensify global efforts to fight cybercrime.

Digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said that Europe needed to improve how it dealt with cybersecurity.

But firms are concerned that reporting online attacks and security breaches might damage their reputations.

The EU is keen that member states share information about attacks and shore up their cyber-defences.

Under the proposals, each country would have to appoint a Computer Emergency Response Team and create an authority to whom companies would report breaches.

Over 40,000 firms, including energy providers, banks and hospitals could be required to report cyber-break-ins under new rules proposed by the EU

Over 40,000 firms, including energy providers, banks and hospitals could be required to report cyber-break-ins under new rules proposed by the EU

These new bodies would decide whether to make the breaches public and whether to fine companies.

Announcing the changes, Neelie Kroes said: “Europe needs resilient networks and systems and failing to act would impose significant costs on consumers, businesses and society.”

According to the EU, only one in four European companies has a regularly-reviewed, formal ICT security policy. Even among ICT companies, the figure is only one in two, it said.