#Fact Check: Viral video of fighter pilot repairing aircraft mid-air is AI-generated

Today, let us talk about one of the key features of our digital lives – security. The safer their online habits are, the safer their data and devices will be. A branded security will make their devices and Internet connections secure, but their carelessness or ignorance can make them targets for cybercrimes. On the other hand, they can themselves unwittingly get involved in dubious activities online. With children being very smart about passwords and browsing history clearing, parents are often left in the dark about their digital lives.

Fret not, parental controls are there at your service. These are digital tools often included with your OS or security software package, which helps you to remotely monitor and control your child’s online activities.

Where Can I find them?

Many devices come with pre-installed PC tools that you have to set up and run. Go to Settings-> Parental controls or Screentime and proceed from there. As I mentioned, they are also offered as a part of your comprehensive security software package.

Why and How to Use Parental Controls

Parental controls help monitor and limit your children's smartphone usage, ensuring they access only age-appropriate content. If your child is a minor, use of this tool is recommended, with the full knowledge of your child/ren. Let them know that just as you supervise them in public places for their safety, and guide them on rights and wrongs, you will use the tool to monitor and mentor them online, for their safety. Emphasize that you love them and trust them but are concerned about the various dubious and fake characters online as well as unsafe websites and only intend to supervise them. As they grow older and display greater responsibility and maturity levels, you may slowly reduce the levels of monitoring. This will help build a relationship of mutual trust and respect.

Step 1: Enable Parental Controls

• iOS: If your child has an iPhone, to set up the controls, go to Settings, select Screen Time, then select Content & Privacy Restrictions.
• Android: If the child has an Android phone, you can use the Google Family Link to manage apps, set screen time limits, and track device usage.
• Third-party apps: Consider security tools like McAfee, Kaspersky, Bark, Qustodio, or Norton Family for advanced features.

Check out what some of the security software apps have on offer:

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If you prefer Norton, here are the details:

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McAfee Parental Controls suite offers the following features:

McAfee also outlines why Parental Controls matter:

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Lastly, let us take a look at what Quick Heal has on offer:

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STEP 2: Set up Admin Login

Needless to say, a parent should be the admin login, and it is a wise idea to set up a strong and unique password. You do not want your kids to outsmart you and change their accessibility settings, do you? Remember to create a password you will remember, for children are clever and will soon discover where you have jotted it down. 

STEP 3: Create Individual accounts for all users of the device

Let us say two minor kids, a grandparent and you, will be using the device. You will have to create separate accounts for each user. You can allow the children to choose their own passwords, it will give them a sense of privacy. The children or you may (or may not) need to help any Seniors set up their accounts.

Done? Good. Now let us proceed to the next step.

STEP 4: Set up access permissions by age

Let us first get grandparents and other seniors out of the way by giving them full access. when you enter their ages; your device will identify them as adults and guide you accordingly. 

Now for each child, follow the instructions to set up filters and blocks. This will again vary with age – more filters for the younger ones, while you can remove controls gradually as they grow older, and hence more mature and responsible. Set up screen Time (daily and weekends), game filtering and playtime, content filtering and blocking by words (e.g. block websites that contain violence/sex/abuse). Ask for activity reports on your device so that you can monitor them remotely This will help you to receive alerts if children connect with strangers or get involved in abusive actions.

Save the data and it has done! Simple, wasn’t it?

Additional Security

For further security, you may want to set up parental controls on the Home Wi-Fi Router, Gaming devices, and online streaming services you subscribe to.

Follow the same steps. Select settings, Admin sign-in, and find out what controls or screen time protection they offer. Choose the ones you wish to activate, especially for the time when adults are not at home.

Conclusion

Congratulations. You have successfully secured your child’s digital space and sanitized it. Discuss unsafe practices as a family, and make any digital rule breaches and irresponsible actions, or concerns, learning points for them. Let their takeaway be that parents will monitor and mentor them, but they too have to take ownership of their actions.

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Cyber, is the new weapon today! Cyber Violence is violence in cyber-space that has led to violation of cyber rights of individuals, especially those of children and women. Online violence and harassment have been overlooked laying more emphasis on offline or physical violence.

New Delhi [India], November 12 (ANI/NewsVoir): Cyber, is the new weapon today! Cyber Violence is violence in cyber-space that has led to violation of cyber rights of individuals, especially those of children and women. Online violence and harassment have been overlooked laying more emphasis on offline or physical violence. Cyber violence very often permanently, psychologically impacts the victims and their families. Various forms of threats ranging from morphing, stalking, solicitation of children for sexual purposes, online grooming, have grave consequences on the victims disturbing their mental well-being. Maintaining mental well-being in cyber space is a challenge we wish to promote and advocate for, in order to build responsible netizens.

Together, we stand against violation of cyber rights and strongly believe; it is critical to allow everyone to feel safe online. Netizen’s safety rights must be protected from all kinds of abuse and violence. Setting a mission of ‘Making India Cyber Safe for Children and Women’, Responsible Netism a social purpose organization in association with CyberPeace Foundation, an award-winning Cyber Security think tank working towards bringing CyberPeace in CyberSpace for more than two decades, host its 6th Annual National Conference on Cyber Psychology themed “India Fights Cyber Violence”, scheduled for Saturday, January 22, 2022. Ta advocate on the theme, the campaign #IndiaFightsCyberViolence was launched on November 11, 2021 by Vinay Sahasrabuddhe – President ICCR, Member of Parliament, Priyank Kanoongo – Chairperson, NCPCR and Rekha Sharma, Chairperson NCW at the ICCR Auditorium Delhi. The session was also attended by the CyberPeace Foundation team members.

Vinay Sahasrabuddhe has been a strong advocate of online safety of children, he shared his visionary words and focused on 3 R’s, Research, Reform and Reshape. He recommended extensive research was necessary to strongly voice concerns and remedies based on evidence-based research which would help us reform intervention strategies and the reshape the existing framework to best suit the needs to protect women and children in cyber space. The NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma shared how critical it is to create awareness about online safety rights of women and reiterated the need for spreading awareness about online safety to reach the last mile in order to build collective action and bring change. She also mentioned the need to conducting nationwide trainings for the police personal to handle and report online distress.

Priyank Kanoongo, the Chairperson of NCPCR has been very proactively advocating for the cause of child online protection and has been instrumental in voicing critical in fiercely voicing his thoughts on protecting online safety rights of children across India. He shared the following thoughts at the launch. He said there is dire need to educate parents about online safety in order to let the information trickle down to their children. He said NCPCR does not hold any inhibitions in naming and shaming violators of child rights be it offline or online and will always raise a strong voice against platform ‘s inability to protect children in cyber space.

Vineet Kumar, Founder and Global President, CyberPeace Foundation, the partnering organization shared that this nationwide movement will build great momentum on the cause of online protection of children and women cross the country and urged organizations across India to pledge their support to the cause. The more people joining this movement would build collective pressure to formulate guidelines and policies the make cyber space safe for children and women. Sonali Patankar – Founder Responsible Netism shared the objective of the campaign was to let online safety reach the last mile and build on aggressive reporting of online content. The movement was an effort to make the campaign India Fights Cyber Violence to make India cyber safe for children.

She shared that the campaign launch would be followed by a nationwide research conducted to understand parents perspectives on cyber violence which would be handy in representing recommendations on women and child safety protocols through commoners. There would be a round table for organizations working with children chaired by Priyank Kanoongo on November 22 followed by a round table held for organizations working with Women chaired by Rekha Sharma Madam on December 22, 2021. The campaign would culminate in the Responsible Netism 6th National Cyber Psychology Conference scheduled for January 22, 2022 that would witness a compilation of the research and the work done throughout the campaign.

The launch was attended by Sujay Patki – Social Activist and Advisor Responsible Netism and Shilpa Chandolikar trustee Responsible Netism, Adv Khushbu Jain Advocate Supreme Court of India followed by the vote of thanks by Unmesh Joshi – Co-founder Responsible Netism. With the success of the launch and the support of NCPCR and NCW, we are sure to make this a nation-wide movement to protect cyber safety rights of netizens and strongly believe in collective action to make India Cyber Safe for Women and Children.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Source: https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1804283-cyberpeace-foundation-and-responsible-netism-launches-campaign-india-fights-cyber-violence-against-women-and-children

Executive Summary

A misleading  advertisement circulating in social media providing attractive offers like iPhone15, AirPods and Smartwatches from the Indian e-commerce platform ‘Myntra’. This “Myntra - Festival Gifts” scam aims to attract the unsuspecting users into a series of redirects and fake interactions to compromise their personal information and devices. It is important to stay vigilant to protect ourselves from misleading attractive offers. Through this report, the Research Wing of CyberPeace explains about a series of processes that happens when the link gets clicked. Through this knowledge, we aim to provide awareness and empower the users to guard themselves and not fall into deceptive offers that aim to scam them.   

False Claim

The widely shared WhatsApp message claims that Myntra  is offering a wide range of high-valued prizes including the latest iPhone 15, AirPods, various smartwatches among all as a Festival Gift promotion. The campaign invites the users to click on the link provided and take a short quiz to be eligible for the prize.

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The Deceptive Scheme

• The link in the social media post is tailored to work only on mobile devices, users are taken through a chain of redirects.
• Users are greeted with the Myntra's "Big Fashion Festival" branding accompanied by Myntra’s logo once they reach the landing page, which gives an impression of authenticity.
• Next, a simple quiz asks basic questions about the user's shopping experience with Myntra, their age, and gender.
• On the bottom of the quiz, there is a comment section that shows the comments from users who are supposedly provided with the prizes to look real,  
• After the completion of the quiz, users are presented with a Spin-to-Win mechanism, to win the prize. 
• After winning, a congratulatory message is displayed which says that the user has won an iPhone 15.
• The final step requires the user to share the campaign over WhatsApp in order to claim the prize.

 Analyzing the Fraudulent Campaign 

• The use of Myntra's branding and the promise of exclusive, high-value prizes are designed to attract  users' interest.
• The fake comments and social proof elements aim to create a false sense of legitimacy and widespread participation, making the offer seem more credible.
• The series of redirects, quizzes, and Spin-to-Win mechanics are tactics to keep users engaged and increase the likelihood of them falling for the scam.
• The final step of sharing the post on WhatsApp is a way for the scammers to further spread the campaign and compromise more victims. Through sharing the link over WhatsApp, users become unaware accomplices that are simply assisting the scammers to reach an even bigger audience and hence their popularity.

• The primary objectives of such scams are to gather users' personal information and potentially gain access to their devices. By luring users with the promise of exclusive gifts and creating a false sense of legitimacy, the scammers aim to exploit user trust and compromise their data, leading to potential identity theft, financial fraud, or the installation of potentially unwanted softwares.
• We have also cross-checked and as of now there is no well established and credible source or any official notification that has confirmed such an offer advertised by Myntra.
• Domain Analysis: If we closely look at the viral message, it is clearly visible that the scammers mentioned myntra.com in the url. However, the actual url takes the user to a different domain as the campaign is hosted on a third party domain instead of the official Website of Myntra, this raised suspicion. This is the common way to deceive users into falling for a Phishing scam. Whois information reveals that the domain has been registered not long ago i.e on 8th April 2024, just a few days back. Cybercriminals used Cloudflare technology to mask the actual IP address of the fraudulent website.

• Domain Name: MYTNRA.CYOU
• Registry Domain ID: D445770144-CNIC
• Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.hkdns.hk
• Registrar URL: http://www.hkdns.hk
• Updated Date: 2024-04-08T03:27:58.0Z
• Creation Date: 2024-04-08T02:58:14.0Z
• Registry Expiry Date: 2025-04-08T23:59:59.0Z
• Registrar: West263 International Limited
• Registrant State/Province: Delhi
• Registrant Country: IN
• Name Server: NORMAN.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM
• Name Server: PAM.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM

‍CyberPeace Advisory and Best Practices‍

• Do not open those messages received from social platforms in which you think that such messages are suspicious or unsolicited. In the beginning, your own discretion can become your best weapon.
• Falling prey to such scams could compromise your entire system, potentially granting unauthorized access to your microphone, camera, text messages, contacts, pictures, videos, banking applications, and more. Keep your cyber world safe against any attacks.
• Never, in any case, reveal such sensitive data as your login credentials and banking details to entities you haven't validated as reliable ones.
• Before sharing any content or clicking on links within messages, always verify the legitimacy of the source. Protect not only yourself but also those in your digital circle.
• For the sake of the truthfulness of offers and messages, find the official sources and companies directly. Verify the authenticity of alluring offers before taking any action.

Conclusion:

The “Myntra - Festival Gift” scam is a kind of manipulation in which the fraudsters exploit the trust of the users and take advantage of a popular e-commerce website. It is equally crucial to equip the users by imparting them knowledge on fraudulent behavior tactics like impersonating brands, creating fake social proof and application of different engagement strategies. We are required to remain alert and stand firm against cyber attacks. Be careful, make sure that information is verified and share awareness to help make a safe online environment for all users.

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