StopSign®

Today’s kids are spending more and more time online in chat rooms, texting via cell phone, and using every digital gadget available to them to communicate with their friends. Not only are they chatting with friends from their schools and neighborhoods, but they’re also meeting new people online and talking with them, too. In most cases the chats are fun and friendly, but there is a growing concern over a dark side of these digital discussions: cyberbullies.

What is cyberbullying?

The National Crime Prevention Council defines cyberbullying as: “Online bullying, called cyberbullying, happens when teens use the Internet, cell phones, or other devices to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person.”. Emails, IM’s, Twitter posts, text messages, MySpace pages… any digital resource can, and likely has been, used for the purposes of cyberbullying.

Warning signs of cyberbullying and harassment.

There’s a large variety of ways that a bully can harass a victim online. A few examples are creating or altering photos in a suggestive manner, continually sending the victim hateful messages, rallying a larger group of people to humiliate someone, and spreading false rumors in order to hurt or embarass the target.

Everyone reacts differently to harassment, but there are some classic warning signs that somehing is wrong. The victims of cyberbullying may:

• Become uncharacteristically withdrawn or antisocial
• Have trouble sleeping, or possibly have nightmares
• Avoid going online or using their cell phone
• Unexpectedly shut down a computer when others come near
• Ask questions about revenge, death, or suicide

At the first sign of any of these, or other unusual behavior, parents, teachers, and other responsible adults should take note and talk to the child. Catching these things early is a key to prevention. And if you come across any bullying, make sure to save any evidence (save emails, print the screen with chats, etc.).

Cyberbullying in the news.

In recent years there have been several high-profile stories in the press regarding cyberbullying. Not only do these stories bring to light the wide-ranging impact of cyberbullying and other forms of digital harassment, but they also illustrate that it’s not just teens bullying other teens. Here are a few examples:

• Adults targeting children in revenge schemes via Craigslist
• Online predators using an online game to find a victim
• Groups of kids and adults harassing an individual with tragic results, such as the MySpace suicide of Megan Meier

How do we stop cyberbullies?

Early detection of harassment is key, though it’s not always easy to find. Staying on top of your child’s internet and cell phone usage is one way to be in the loop. And don’t worry about keeping tabs: it’s not snooping or invading their privacy, it’s looking out for their well being!

We’ve come up with a short list of 5 cyberbullying prevention tips to help parents and their children stop cyberbullying in it’s tracks:

1. Report cyberbullies:

   As with any bully, make sure that your kids know that it’s not OK for this to happen to them. They should also tell a responsible adult: parents, teachers, etc. Parents and other adults should take the information seriously and should report any instance of harassment to the authorities (police, school administrators, etc.)

2. Education = prevention:

   Talk with your kids and let them know the ramifications of cyberbullying: fear, embarassment, and other negative reactions.

3. Consider a contract:

   There are plenty of examples of fair use contracts between parents and children online that have clear, concise rules of internet and cell phone usage. Find a few examples and discuss them with your kids so that they know what is expected of them and get a written promise of compliance.

4. Look for warning signs:

   Red flags that show up when a child is the victim of a cyberbully include (but aren’t limited to): being nervous when downloading emails or IM’s, becoming angry when online (or just after going offline), being uncharacteristically withdrawn from friends and family, the unexpected absence of any cell phone usage, and avoiding any time online.

5. Get informed, stay informed:

   Keep an open door policy with your kids so that they know they can come to you at any time to discuss problems that may arise both online and offline.

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

From “Romeo and Juliet“, by William Shakespeare

The creation of a username (or user ID) for any online service or account is often overlooked as a topic of Internet safety. Although the username you create for your bank’s web site may not be viewed by many people, your email, social network, and instant message (AKA “IM“) usernames will be viewed by dozens, hundreds, or maybe thousands of people (depending on your popularity online and/or the openness of the service).

When choosing a username it’s best to not take any chances. Crooks, predators, fraudsters, scammers… anyone with ill intentions might be able to wedge their way into your life to cause problems. There are 3 types of personal information found in many usernames that might be useful to the bad guys, which we’ll discuss below.

Note: In the sections below we use various usernames as examples. These are not intended to be the usernames of actual people, and any similarity is purely coincidental.

Age

This is especially important for children, as their usernames can be displayed to all kinds of unsavory characters online, from sexual predators to cyberbullys. When helping your child select a username for themselves, be careful not to reveal their age.

Here are some examples of age-defining usernames:

• Little15 Shows the age of the user.
• Bobby1997 The full year of the users birth.
• Kewl95Dude The partial year of the users birth.

Location

Area codes, city/county names, zip codes, phone prefixes… there are many ways to give a crook or scammer information on where you live. Remember the movie “You’ve Got Mail“? Tom Hanks’ character used his building number in his username (“NY152″). Rich guy, building in his username… there’s some quick and easy info for a baddie to pick up on. Don’t be that guy (or gal).

Here are some examples of location-defining usernames:

• Alice90210 The zip code of the user
• Derrick212 The area code of the user
• KingCoKyle The county of the user. (e.g. “King County”)

Gender

Whether you’re a man or a woman, it’s easier to identify people when you know more things about them. If, for example, someone wanted to cyber-stalk you, it would be easier to pick you out in a crowd if they could eliminate half of the group by only looking for one sex vs. the other.

Here are some examples of gender-defining usernames:

• LadyInRed
• MisterMan
• MrsHotPotato

A few things to note

We’re detailing suggestions, not absolutes. If you’re 87 years old and decide that HappyGramps87 is the username for you, then you’ll probably be fine since age is much more of an issue for children. And, of course, there are things that shouldn’t need to be said like putting things like your PIN or Social Security number in your username. Just use your best judgment and do what you think is right. And safe.

For all the good that the internet brings to us, it can also be a dangerous place if you’re not careful. Identity theft, burglars reading blogs, and many other issues can catch you in their web if you’re not careful. Because of this we have a few suggestions to help keep you and your family safe both off- and online.

Keep Personal Information Private

It’s easy to reveal too much information on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. These sites usually have online forms where you can input your email, phone number, and even home address. Keeping spam out of your inbox is one thing, but with today’s sophisticated criminals and increased use of the internet by organized crime, you have to be careful with your home and family information.

Remember that anywhere you publish your home address might provide an opportunity for a burglar looking to case a neighborhood to find his or her next victim. Just as you wouldn’t put your Social Security number anywhere for the general public to see, keep as much personal information under wraps as possible: home address, work address, home phone number, etc.

Watch Those Pictures and Videos

Sharing pictures and videos with family and friends is great, especially with the ease of use that most gizmos and gadgets have today; but be careful not to let anything personally identifiable leak out accidentally. Pictures of your home are fine, but make sure that nothing that can identify you or your family is visible. For example, anything like a street sign near your home or the name of the school that your kids attend can be dangerous to post since they can be used to track you down in real life. The same goes for your cars. Even news and entertainment shows blur out license plates for the sake of privacy and security. If your pictures have any elements like that, it’s a good idea to cut- or blur-out those things.

Don’t worry though, because you’re not going to have to spend a lot of cash to buy a photo editing software package like Photoshop (a wonderful, albeit expensive, piece of software). If you don’t have photo-editing software, you can find plenty of free online tools that let you blur, clip, or pixelate pictures without emptying your wallet. A few good ones are Pixlr and Picnik.

Don’t Reveal Too Much

Be sure not to give away too many details about your daily activities. Most people have a general pattern they follow day-to-day as they go to school or work, and criminals can use that information to their advantage. If you post info online about going on vacation, a ball game, or even the grocery store, then those who might use that information against you could be given a perfect opportunity to slide in when you step out. Instead, try posting your activities after the fact, with the added benefit of being able to show pictures of the fun you had (keeping in mind the photo safety tips above).

One Last Thing…

Don’t get us wrong.. it’s not like posting a picture online is going to immediately ruin your life. Well, not any family-friendly photos, at least. Some of the examples given may seem extreme, but they happen, and you need to be aware of them. But like with most things in life, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Exercising a little extra caution before clicking that “submit” button can help curb any potential hazards and keep you and your information safe.

There’s a lot to worry about online, and as an internet security software company we hope that you use our StopSign products to help keep you safe. But even if you don’t use our software, there are a few things you can easily do to ensure that you are less likely to be the victim of phishing, malware, or internet fraud.

1. Secure? For sure! – “https”.

   When a web page requests personal information, like your Social Security number, when you’re making an online purchase, or if you need to access your bank account online, make sure that you look in the address bar of your browser to make sure you are on a secure server.

   It’s easy to see if the site you’re on is secure by seeing if the URL starts with “https”. Non-secure websites use “http”, so just look for that additional “s”. No real company who is concerned for your security will ever ask you for any sensitive, banking, or credit card-related information without a secure server in place. Anything else is a scam, pure and simple.

2. Watch where you’re browsing.

   A lot of phishing attempts are done by using similarly-named domains or by tricks with the URL. The domain name of the website you are trying to view should always be before the “.com” (or “.net”, or whatever top level domain they use).

   For example, our blog is supposed to be on stopsign.com. If you saw blog.stopsign.example.com, that is not the official StopSign blog, because our domain name (stopsign) isn’t before the “.com”. See our blog post “How to Spot a Fake Website” for more information on fake websites.

3. Use a secure password.

   Making a secure password is a simple solution to staving off the casual hacker who wants to try to break into one of your online accounts. Often one of the first things they do is use a “dictionary” of common passwords and/or common words to try to access accounts. See our blog post “12 Tips for Making a Good Password” for additional details and tips on secure password creation.

4. Don’t open that email attachment.

   Like most people you probably get dozens of emails per day. It’s not uncommon to get attachments to your email with pictures from friends and family, but make sure that you never open an email attachment from an unknown person. Lots of viruses and spyware are spread online by email, and if you open one of them you’ll be instantly infected.

5. If it’s too good to be true.

   Beware the scam artists online who prey on the kind-hearted and the uninformed. The Nigerian scams (and their many variants), “donation” seekers who want your bank account information, and other pests flood the internet daily. If something you’re being told seems too good to be true, it is, and if an email or website is asking you for private information it’s more than likely a scam or some other type of internet fraud. Unless of course it really is from your bank or the government, but it would still be on a secure server (when in doubt, give them a call and ask if they actually sent the email), and you should also be sure to watch where you’re browsing!

So there you go… 5 simple things that you can easily do to make sure that your browsing experience is safe and worry-free.