WebUser – 04 April 2018

12 4-17April 2018 [email protected]

THISISSUE’SEXPERT:

DavidEmm,principal

securityresearcherat

KasperskyLab (www

.kaspersky.co.uk)

Q

HowcanImake

sure mychildren

staysafewhen

they goonline?

KarenGreaves,Facebook

A

Therecentnews

that social-media

sitesare harming

pupils’mental health (bit

.ly/social446)comes as

awarning to parentswho

don’t regularlycheckand

NationalLotterysuffers

‘low-level’ hack

Millionsof National

Lottery players

have beenurged to

changetheirpasswords

after a‘low-level’

cyber-attackaffected

150 customer accounts.Hackers

gainedaccess to the accounts

by usinglogindetailsgleanedfrom

alistcirculatedonthe internet,said

aspokeswomanfrom Camelot,owner

of the NationalLottery.

Camelotsaid no bankdetailsor

moneyhavebeen stolenfrom the

hacked playeraccounts.Privacy

watchdogthe Information

Commissionerhas beeninformedof

the attack,alongwiththe policeand

the NationalCyber SecurityCentre.

“Aspart of our regularsecurity

monitoring,we have seensome

suspiciousactivityon avery small

numberof players’ accounts,”said

monitor theirchildren’s

onlineactivity.Fromayoung

age, children areexposed to

technology that lets them

easily swipeand click

to access entertainment

or information. We want to

ensure that this freedom to

explorethe onlineworld can

continue withoutsacrificing

theiremotionalsafety.

However, ahuge87% of

parentsdon’t restrict the

amountoftimetheir young

children spendonline–and

only13% of parentsinstall

onlinesecurity. Having

parental controls in place

andreviewing thedefault

settings foreachapp aretwo

very smallsteps that we,

as parents, cantake.

Your child’sinternetuse

should be supervised, and

youshould encouragethem

to sticktofamiliar websites.

If youhave anyconcerns,

take alook at theirbrowsing

history. Be awareofany

password-protected sites

that they maybeaccessing

and askthemto sharetheir

login details withyou.

It’s also importantto

encourageyourchild to be

open aboutwhattheydo

online andwho they

socialisewith. Promote

aculture of safety and

awareness withinthe home

andtalkaboutthe possible

dangers that exist.

As part of your online

security regime, youshould

useparental controls to

blockaccess to sitesyou

don’twantyourchild

lookingat–it’saneasy

waytoavoid disaster.

Review thedefault settings

on eachapp that your child

uses to ensure that the

cameraormicrophone, for

example,aren’tneedlessly

turned on,because these

canposeathreat.

News aboutthe latest threats and advicefromsecurityexperts

Stay Safe Online

SECURITY ALERT! |What’sbeenbotheringus thisfortnight

Security Helpdesk|Your questionsansweredbysecurityspecialists

Camelotin an emailto customers.“We

have directlycontacted thoseplayers

whoseaccountshave beenaffected.

If youhaveapasswordyou use across

multiplesites thenyoushouldchangeit”.

Players can normallytransfer money

from theirdebitcards intotheir National

Lottery accounts,thenuse thosefunds

to buy onlinelottery tickets or scratch

cards. The150 hacked accountshave

nowbeen suspended,Camelotsaid.

bit.ly/lottery

Hackersbuildmassive

Androidbotnet

Securityresearchershave found malware

theybelieve is assemblingabotnetarmy

of fivemillioncompromisedAndroid

devices. Researchersfrom cybersecurity

firm CheckPoint said the RottenSys

malwaretargetsAndroid usersvia an

app disguisedas aWi-Fi service.

RottenSys,activesinceSeptember

2016, had amassed nearly5million

devices by March this year from

manufacturers includingHonorand

Huawei. Evidenceshowedthatanew

modulein the malwareistryingto

create abotnetand researcherssaid

thathackers have beentesting new

malwarethatcan turnthe victim

deviceintoa‘slave’inalarger botnet.

Themalwaremay have entered

the users’devices beforepurchase,

withhalf of the infected phones

boughtthroughaChinesedistributor.

CheckPoint said userscan uninstall

RottenSys if theyknowthe exact

package nameto remove.Atpresent,

researcherscould not sayhow the

hackers mighttry to use the botnet.

bit.ly/rottensys