In this digital world, where children are increasingly wired to the social media and the internet, concerns over cyber security, cyber bullying and cyber hygiene are pertinent. Keeping this in mind, our School hosted a workshop on cyber security on 27 December 2022, for the students of classes 8 to 11.
The resource person for the workshop was Dr Rakshit Tandon, national cyber security expert and crime investigator. He specialises in cyber forensics and ethical hacking for various law enforcement agencies in India. A cyber security consultant to the Internet and Mobile Association of India, Dr Tandon has two decades of expertise in cyber security and is a key contributor to UNICEF's study, "Child Online Protection in India".
During the session, Dr. Rakshit Tandon enlightened the students about the various impacts of technology in our day-to-day lives. He said, "The internet is not a place for adventure." Considering the increasing number of cases of cyber crime, he was of the opinion that we need to be more cautious than ever.
Talking about cyber fraud, Dr Tandon narrated an incident including that involving a teenager from Delhi who spent ten lakh rupees from his mothers bank account to purchase upgrades in PUBG, a game well known for violence. He befriended Devil360, a friend he found on Discord. They both came up with a plan to participate in a gaming championship, which would reward them with thirty eight lakh rupees, if they won. The very second day a kidnapping case was filed as the boy disappeared. It later came to light that the teen was in Kathmandu. He was lucky to be rescued by Dr Rakshits team on the seventh day!
In todays era, where we are loaded with new information, whether from movies, YouTube, books or games sometimes we consume content that is not suitable for our age or maturity levels. WHO has coined a gaming disorder, ICD-II, which is a prevailing disease. Its not about the game, its about how well our brain handles it and its ability to not get overpowered by the content. It is important therefore, to adhere to the age restrictions as they serve a significant purpose.
Social distancing has distanced us at a physical as well as mental level, which in turn has limited real life conversations with people around us. The concept of befriending strangers online has emerged from this. When youngsters find somebody who might listen and validate their ego, they end up indulging more and more with them. This is not the right thing to do as we never know who is behind the username. Dr Tandon talked about incidents where victims shared their personal information or pictures and their safety was compromised when later they were blackmailed by their so called online friends.
Dr Tandon cautioned us that we need to be very careful on the net as nobody can erase our digital footprints. We must think twice before every click. We need to consider the four pillars of social media- Security, Privacy, Safety and Well being.
For cyber security, Dr Tandon gave out the following valuable tips-
We should keep different passwords for different sites as our data might have been pwned by one. We can check if our data has been pwned by visiting a web called, have I been pwned, enable a two-step verification and visit trusted websites only.
Never take customer care numbers from Google.
Use anti-RFID wallets made of aluminium.
Never click suspicious links. If a link seems potentially dangerous,www.virustotal.comcan be of use.
1930 is the helpline for cybercrimes. We can anonymously report crimes onwww.cybercrime.gov.in
Dr Rakshit Tandon informed us about various resource books which can be found on the site mentioned above.
The session was a very informative one. It is always a pleasure to listen to Dr Rakshit Tandon, owing to his modesty and fun loving nature. His thirty years of valuable experience is unmatchable. We would certainly look forward to attending more sessions by him.
Pranya Sadh XI D
In the Press
Admissions
