Written by Supul Edirisinghe (Edited by Jenna Manhau Fung)
Training Session 4: Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Safer Internet was held successfully on January 26, 2023. The session consisted of Three Case Studies presented by the members of WG#4, Speeches from the three guest speakers Ashlesh Biradar, Tatiana Tropina, and Piotr Slowinski, a breakout room discussion and to conclude the session a summary of breakout room discussions.
During the first 15 minutes of the session, Members from WG#4 Paribhasha Pradhan and Yunsol Shin Presented three Case Studies on the topics of Cybersecurity(Cyber-threat), Privacy, and Safer Internet. First Yunsol Shin gave a brief introduction to cybersecurity, privacy, safer internet, and protecting teenagers and children online.
The Fist Case Study (Cyber-threat) showed how various types of cyber threats (malware, phishing, social engineering) can be used to target children for various things ranging from cyberbullying to exposure to inappropriate content as children may not have the same level of awareness or understanding as adults. A study by Global Cybersecurity Forum (GCF) showed that 72% of children around the world have been victims of at least one type of cyber threat online.
The Second Study (Privacy) discussed how Sharenting(Share + Parenting) which is the act of sharing photos and details of their children on social media by parents can lead to one of the huge concerns for children’s privacy unknowingly. As these photos/videos can be used for Geolocating and may be shared on pedophilia websites, as well as someone can use the shared information to kidnap a child. And concluded that parents must be aware of those risks and also they should be careful not to leak children’s personal information on social media and that children often thought negatively of parents sharing photos on social media without their consent.
The Third Case Study (Safer Internet) talked about Child Sexual Abuse, and how perpetrators can leverage technology and the internet to target, manipulate and exploit vulnerable children for obtaining and distributing Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). To tackle this issue, it is important to increase awareness of the problem among kids, parents, and educators, and support the development of new technology that can be used to stop internet child sex abuse law enforcement agencies should collaborate with other nations to battle this issue globally.
Then during the next 30 minutes, the three guest speakers presented their speeches.
The first guest speaker Mr.Ashlesh, who was an IGF 2022 ambassador presented their initiative bestiary of cybercrime, which is a project to explore how art can be used to create materials to educate people about cybercrimes using medieval beasts, in a storytelling way. Their first sample work is called pegasus which talks about the pegasus malware in the form of the ancient creature pegasus, explaining the attack, backstory, and stats in an engaging and interesting manner.
The second speaker, Prof. Tatiana Tropina who is an Assistant Professor at Leiden University’s Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs; talked about cyberspace and cybercrime. She explained how cybercrime takes a broader scope than cybersecurity as cybercrime can be explained as any criminal activity which has used any form of digital technology can be classified as a cybercrime. Cybercrime can be classified into three categories; Core- Cyber Dependent crimes (CIA Crimes), Cyber-enabled crimes (using a computer as a tool for “traditional” offense), and lastly investigation frameworks, which is any crime that leaves digital traces. And she also discussed the global proposals and initiatives on cybercrime treaties and the issues those treaties presented.
The third speaker Mr.Piotr Slowinski talked about Data Privacy & Protection in the European Union. He talked about various legal regulations that exist for data protection in the EU such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). And also discussed the core principles of data protection in the EU which are Lawfulness, fairness and transparency, Purpose limitation, Data minimization, Accuracy, Storage limitation, Integrity and confidentiality (security), and Accountability. Then he talked about the challenges and opportunities in data protection. CSIRT and CERT teams are responsible for handling incidents. He showed that some data shouldn’t be restricted and should be accessible widely. And also digital and legal illiteracy is a huge proportion of data privacy violations.
Afterward, the Q&A session was held and during which interesting questions were asked by the audience regarding the discussed topics such as the existence of robust laws for cybercrimes and the panel of three guest speakers answered with enthusiasm the interesting questions presented. Then the breakout room session started and three speakers, WG#4 facilitators, and all the participants were broken up into 3 groups evenly inside them, they were given four questions to discuss regarding Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Safer Internet.
Finally, during the last 10 minutes of the session, everyone gathered in the main room and notetakers from each breakout room summarized the discussion that took place in each breakout room. Session 4 of Netmission Academy 2023 concluded with the notice of next week’s session.