Due to COVID-19, schools and colleges are non-operational across India, physically. Although there is no immediate disruption to education and teaching, learning has almost moved entirely from physical to virtual. This presents an added responsibility and stress for parents to keep their children safe from cyber criminals who could be trying to leverage this opportunity to lure online users to click on malicious links and files. The IET’s Cybersecurity Working Group has put together some best practices to be followed to safeguard children from becoming targets of malware and thus, to protect them cyber threats.

1. India Advisory Notes
Safeguarding children from cyber
threats in times of a pandemic
Essential security practices

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About us
The IET is one of the world’s largest professional societies for engineers, headquartered in the UK. Soon
to turn 150 years, we work closely with industry, academia and government in our mission to engineer a
better world. In line with this, we have specific global initiatives around key sectors that are relevant to
solving problems that impact the society at large. In India, we have over 13,000 members and wide
ranging activities in areas such as Future technologies, Future of Mobility and Transport, as well as the
Future of Work. Eminent engineers like Shri Ratan Tata, Former Chairman Tata Sons, N R Narayana
Murthy, Chairman Emeritus, Infosys and T V Ramachandran, President, Broadband India Forum (Ex-
Resident Director, Vodafone) are our Honorary Fellows.
With our members, we are driving innovation and change in the fields of engineering and technology.
We research, investigate, review and analyse the industry’s challenges, proposing solutions that will
have a significant impact on the world for years to come.
This advisory note is part of a series, put together by the IET’s expert volunteers in India in the backdrop
of the global pandemic brought about by Covid-19. In this paper, experts from our Cybersecurity
Working group detail how parents should conduct themselves in order to safeguard children from cyber
threats.
Read more about our Future Technology focus as well as our panels here:
https://india.theiet.org/innovation-knowledge/. To become a volunteer and to contribute, please write to
us at sectors@theiet.in
Disclaimers
This document is owned and maintained by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, India and the
design of the document is © IET India 2020.
The information contained in this document should not be interpreted as a representation of the views of
the IET, nor should it be assumed that it reflects any of its current or future policy. The information
cannot supersede any statutory or contractual requirements or liabilities and is offered without prejudice.
While the authors, publisher and contributors believe that the information and guidance given in this
work are correct, all parties must rely upon their own skill and judgement while making use of them.
Neither the authors nor the publishers assume any liability to anyone for any loss or damage caused by
an error or omission in the work, as a result of negligence or any other cause.

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Introduction
Due to COVID-19, schools and colleges are non-operational across India. Although there is no
immediate disruption to education and teaching, learning has, almost entirely moved from physical
classrooms to online classes. This presents an added responsibility for parents to keep their children
safe from cyber criminals who could be trying to leverage this emergency and luring internet users to
click on malicious links and files. The IET’s Cybersecurity Working Group has put together some best
practices to be followed to safeguard children from becoming targets of malware and thus, to protect
them cyber threats.
Make kids aware about cybersecurity threats
The essential factor in protecting children from cyber threats is to communicate
openly. Parents should treat cybersecurity as a subject of technology. A common
mistake is that parents approach online safety habits as a matter of values and
behaviour. In reality, children should be taught safe browsing behaviours as a skill
from a very young age.
Children should be made aware about social media deception tricks including the
ones where adversaries devise fraudulent profiles to befriend children pretending to
be friend or known buddy. Installing such malware helps cyber-criminals steal
sensitive information.
Safeguard your network
There are various content security products designed to protect home networks, and
they come with varying configurations at different security layers. They also offer
multiple configuration options to users for customising privacy settings to block
irrelevant content. Parents should explore these options proactively.
Use software and applications to restrict unsolicited content
To protect kids from content that is not suitable for their age, parents could use a host
of available apps as well as in-app filters. These applications restrict adult websites and
suspicious social networking sites for kids’ safety. They also check proxies and VPNs
that possibly allow bypassing content restrictions. They help enable ‘safe mode’ for
browsing the web and popular video platforms.

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Use parental control applications
To ensure kids spend their extra time on the internet in a safe manner, parents can use
freely available control applications. These applications monitor and protect children
online. It is seen that this approach works better with younger kids than teenagers, as
teenagers quickly uncover ways to bypass such controls and access the content they
seek. Therefore, having open conversations with teenagers about being circumspect in
online environments are a better approach than such apps.
Before installing any stalker-ware applications it is important, that you ensure that they
are from a reliable source. Phony versions of these applications are aplenty and can be
cybersecurity threats by themselves.
Engage children onto learning platforms
In addition to applying necessary restrictions online, parents can also help their children
engage with a wealth of knowledge that is available online in a safe manner. Multiple
online learning platforms have now put their repertoire of content online for free
consumption. Learning resources like the IET’s Faraday Programme offer cool projects
and fun activities that could be tried at home. These are extremely engaging set of
activities that help learning concepts in Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM). Explore them here: https://education.theiet.org/primary/ and
https://education.theiet.org/secondary/
Social responsibility
Technology organisations and telecom providers must come forward and do everything
they can, to keep children safe online. These includes providing access to no-cost (toll
free) child helplines, age-appropriate services and reliable e-education platforms. They
could also act as advocates of best practices and share child online safety advisories
with their subscribers at regular intervals.
Cautiousness against socially engineered attacks
From executives to employees to children - all those using home networks are potential
targets of cyber attackers. Social engineering always preys on unpatched vulnerabilities.
It is a constant attack that goes round the clock. Children are soft targets as
cybercriminals are experts in the art of masquerading, influencing, and devising
methods to trick children. A moment of lapse, and children inadvertently end up giving
attackers easy access to our networks and facilities.
While it is best practice to not share credit card details with anyone, if parents have
shared their credit card details and internet banking credentials with their children, it is
essential to regularly monitor and keep an eye on statements/bills to save themselves
from financial thefts that are on the rise.

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Conclusion
We believe that we are currently witnessing the largest remote working scenario in the history of
mankind. While organisations are working on a range of measures to protect the interests of enterprise
security, cyber criminals are always exploring new ways to exploit vulnerabilities. The indispensability of
technology in lives of children and their active presence over the internet makes them a soft target for
cyber risks. Hence, it is important that children are equipped with the knowledge and skills to be safe
and responsible online and parents can play an important role in doing this.
People are following social distancing for the last few weeks to protect themselves against the novel
coronavirus. Likewise, people should learn and practice cyber distancing to safeguard themselves from
attackers.
Contributor
Anand Handa
Member – IET Cybersecurity Working Group
Project Executive Officer, Interdisciplinary Centre for Cyber Security and Cyber
Defence of Critical Infrastructures, Department of Computer Science and
Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
If you have a question or query, please feel free to reach out to us at sectors@theiet.in. Read more
about our work at india.theiet.org