In a decisive move to bolster Nigeria’s cybersecurity landscape, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with global cybersecurity leader, Kaspersky.

The agreement, signed as a sideline activity of the GTIEX Nigeria in Lagos, marks a significant milestone in Nigeria’s digital transformation journey and its commitment to securing critical infrastructure through capacity building and collaboration. It is also in alignment with the NITDA’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2.0) pillar five which is to ‘Strengthen Cybersecurity and Enhance Digital Trust,” and a key pillar of the Renewed Hope Agenda of strengthening National Security for Peace and Prosperity.

The NITDA Director General, Kashifu Inuwa, CCIE who signed the MoU on behalf of NITDA emphasised that the foundation of cybersecurity lies in human capacity.

“More than 95% of cyber breaches are caused by human error. “Our first line of defense must be the people. We need to build talent, raise awareness, and ensure fluency in how technology is used. This MoU is not just a formality, it is a springboard for action,” Inuwa stated.

He further stressed that while MOUs often generate media attention, the real value lies in implementation. “We have already started working with Kaspersky even before this signing. For us, it is about impact, not just paperwork. We want the media and the public to hold us accountable for delivering on this partnership.”

He said, “the Cybersecurity aspects that should be considered for having a secure IT environment in the country range from the safe use of smartphones by children and older people, to shielding the facilities of critical infrastructure. Our collaboration with Kaspersky, which has deep expertise in all these areas, will be another step in building multi-layered national security”,

In his opening statement, the General Manager, Kaspersky Africa, Chris Norton, expressed strong enthusiasm for the partnership and Nigeria’s digital potential.

He said, “We are doubling down on the Nigerian market. Africa doesn’t need charity, it needs skills. Through public-private partnerships like this, we can accelerate value creation for communities and governments.”

He added that Kaspersky is committed to supporting Nigeria’s cybersecurity ecosystem and will also become a supporting member of the Nigerian Computer Society.

“This is the first step in a direction that I believe will lead to far bigger things for the Nigerian people and government. We are excited to work together to build a safer digital future.”

The scope of the MoU includes: Cybersecurity training and capacity building

public awareness campaigns, information sharing and protection of critical national infrastructure.

According to the MoU, both NITDA and Kaspersky would be exchanging relevant technical information, threat intelligence and data feeds related to cyberthreats and cyberattacks affecting the citizens, businesses and government in Nigeria. Kaspersky will provide advice for NITDA’s consideration in the building of cybersecurity frameworks and standards for the critical information infrastructures of Nigeria.

The signing ceremony concluded with a shared commitment to begin implementation immediately, focusing on proactive measures to counter emerging cyber threats and build a resilient digital infrastructure.

This partnership builds on an earlier engagement at GITEX Africa in Marrakech, Morocco, where the initial groundwork for collaboration was laid. It also follows similar agreements Kaspersky has signed with other Nigerian institutions, including SMEDAN.

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TECH DIGEST– January to September 2022, computers in the industrial control systems (ICS) environment were attacked using multiple means. In the META region, malicious objects were blocked on 38% of ICS computers in the region that were protected by Kaspersky solutions, according to Kaspersky ICS CERT statistics. Globally the share of ICS computers with blocked malicious objects stands at 31,8%. APT attacks on industrial systems are expected to get even more sophisticated in the coming months.

ICS computers are used in oil & gas, energy, automotive manufacturing, building automation infrastructures and other spheres to perform a range of OT functions – from the workstations of engineers and operators to supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) servers and Human Machine Interface (HMI).

Cyberattacks on industrial computers are considered to be extremely dangerous as they may cause material losses and production downtime for the controlled production line and even the facility as a whole. Moreover, industrial enterprises put out of service can seriously undermine a region’s social welfare, ecology and macroeconomics.

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During the three quarters of 2022 in the META region ICS computers in the oil and gas sector faced attacks most often (39,3% of them got attacked). Attacks on building automation systems were in second place – 38,8% of ICS computers in this sector were targeted. The energy sector was also among the top-3 environments that got attacked (36,8% of computers there were affected).

In total in January-September 2022 various types of malicious objects were blocked on 38% of ICS computers in the META region. Of these, most attacks on ICS infrastructure came from the Internet (28,2%). 9,9% of attacks were made through email clients. 7,0% of attacks were conducted through removable media, 0,9% – through network folders.

In Nigeria, various types of malicious objects were blocked on 38.7% of ICS computers between January-September 2022. Of these, 19.4% came from the Internet and 3.5% of attacks were made through email clients. 10.7% of attacks were conducted through removable media.

APT attacks on industrial systems are expected to get even more sophisticated in the coming months. The targets will be organizations in agriculture, logistics & transportation, energy (mining, chemical, machine tool industry) sectors, as well as the sectors of renewable energy and Hi-Tech.

Another trend seen by Kaspersky for the remainder of 2022 and the next year is the rise of ransomware in ICS environments. Ransomware groups have come a long way: scattered gangs become organized businesses and form a full-fledged industry. We are seeing more cases where ransomware attacks, including those on ICS computers, are performed manually, in a time-consuming, yet efficient manner.

“The period of global instability provokes global semiconductor shortage. In turn, that causes companies to lower their budgets on cybersecurity, which becomes a critical issue in 2022-2023, especially in view of the evolving threat landscape. Critical industrial infrastructure solutions will be a new target for cybercrime,” says Vladimir Dashchenko, Kaspersky Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team expert.

Read more about the ICS threat landscape on the Kaspersky ICS CERT website.

To keep your OT computers protected from various threats, Kaspersky experts recommend:

• Conducting regular security assessments of OT systems to identify and eliminate possible cyber security issues.
• Establishing continuous vulnerability assessment and triage as a base for effective vulnerability management process. Dedicated solutions like Kaspersky Industrial CyberSecurity may become an efficient assistant and a source of unique actionable information, not fully available in public.
• Performing timely updates for the key components of the enterprise’s OT network; applying security fixes and patches or implementing compensating measures as soon as it is technically possible is crucial for preventing a major incident that might cost millions due to the interruption of the production process.
• Using EDR solutions such as Kaspersky Endpoint Detection and Response for timely detection of sophisticated threats, investigation, and effective remediation of incidents.
• Improving the response to new and advanced malicious techniques by building and strengthening security teams’ incident prevention, detection, and response skills. Dedicated OT security trainings for IT security teams and OT personnel is one of the key measures helping to achieve this.

SOURCE: ITEDGENEWS

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TECHDIGEST – Despite having an equally adverse impact as offline abuse, digital violence remains largely hidden behind a veil of excuses.

Kaspersky and the European Network for the Work with Perpetrators of Domestic Violence (WWP EN) have joined forces to raise awareness about abuse disguised as seemingly caring actions.

According to Kaspersky, efforts to keep a partner safe, or suspicions of infidelity, are widely accepted justifications for digital monitoring in a relationship. In fact, the latest global study commissioned by Kaspersky shows that 30% of respondents worldwide believe spying on a partner without their consent is acceptable, at least under some circumstances.

READ ALSO: Startup Bill Will Develop Nigeria’s Tech Ecosystem – DG NITDA

However, perpetrators of domestic violence can use this reasoning to hide their coercive and controlling behaviour, which in some circumstances can escalate to other unhealthy offline behaviours including mental and emotional abuse, and even physical violence.

The dedicated digital campaign #NoExcuse4Abuse by by Kaspersky and the WWP E,  that will run during September 13-15, 2022, aims to shift the focus from suggesting how survivors should respond to this ill treatment and violence, to highlighting the perpetrators’ responsibility and showcasing the most common abusive behaviour in relationships that should be changed.

Digital abuse is a massive, widespread problem. The same Kaspersky study found that almost a quarter of respondents (24%) have been stalked by means of technology, and 37% of people worry about their partner violating their digital privacy.

Furthermore, the study showed that 15% of respondents are required by their partner to install a monitoring app, which is certainly an alarming statistic. Moreover, digital monitoring and controlling behaviour has the risk of escalating to offline forms of abuse, where women are significantly more likely to be victims of domestic abuse at the hands of their partner (30% versus 19%) than men.

The digital cards developed for the #NoExcuse4Abuse campaign are mostly directed at perpetrators exhibiting abusive behaviour via digital tools and will attempt to interrupt the reasoning that keeps them from addressing their violence.

“Technology can be a huge aid and open endless opportunities, but at the same time it can be a source of threats and real-life danger. Working in cybersecurity, we know that very well. With the rise of tracking software, online banking, social media, geotagging, perpetrators now have more tools than ever before. We feel that it is important to break the bias around this topic and help victims recognise the signs of possible digital abuse,” comments Maria Losyukova, Head of Sustainability at Kaspersky.

Anna McKenzie, Communications manager at WWP EN, remarks: “If we want to end domestic violence, we must start talking about the countless ways digital technology is being used to control and harass women. Abusive digital behaviours have become so ‘normalised’ that many men in our members’ programs aren’t even aware that their behaviours constitute violence. We are proud to shine a light on the flimsy excuses used to justify tech-facilitated abuse with the #NoExcuse4Abuse campaign.”

Kaspersky has been actively involved in the fight against stalkerware being one of the founders of the Coalition Against Stalkerware (CAS), an international working group dedicated to combating stalkerware and domestic violence.

The WWP EN is also one of the coalition’s founding organisations contributing greatly to the fight against stalker apps. The expertise provided by WWP EN, and the organisation’s experience working with various forms of abusers and perpetrators, allows it to develop effective ways to combat stalkerware.

Source: ITedgenews 

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TECHDIGEST – As the seasonal change marks the start of a new school year for many markets around the world, this aptly dubbed “back to school season” is traditionally a profitable time for fraudsters as millions of students are getting ready to make tuition payments, or purchase school supplies and new books.

With universities becoming more concerned about their networks’ cybersecurity, attackers find ways to breach these systems by targeting inattentive students, staff and professors. Kaspersky experts highlight intensified phishing campaigns with fraudsters exploiting the names of some of the worlds’ biggest universities.

University-specific phishing pages are usually well-crafted and mimic official university webpages or online learning management systems. Once users visit false pages, they are duped into sharing personal information like account credentials, IP addresses or location data.

The importance of universities’ corporate account safety is often underrated when referring to organisations’ data protection. Famous educational institution names, some with critical research centers operating in various fields from political economy to nuclear physics, are used as a lure to distribute phishing pages.

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And with governments and large corporations often purchasing research studies from these universities, it makes the sensitive data they possess extremely valuable for attackers.

By accessing students’ or employees’ accounts, the attacker may access personal information of their victims but also their educational plans, payment information and timetable of classes. This carries the risks of online threats transitioning to real life stalking and abuse.

“Education becoming more digitalised is a beneficial shift. Not only do learning management systems allow students to maximise their academic progress in the most efficient way, but also more people across the world get a chance to learn from the best professors at the biggest universities.

This also widens the spectrum of threats student face. Scammers are luring students to give away their personal credentials to access data containing not only unique expertise but also private and potentially compromising information,” comments Olga Svistunova, security expert at Kaspersky.

Kaspersky recommends the following measures to safeguard systems and young people against education fraud:

Check before clicking: It’s always advisable to hover over the link to preview the URL,and look for misspellings or other irregularities.

Introduce some form of two-factor authentication for information systems, especially web-based ones, and particularly for access to student records, grades and assessments. Set strong and appropriate access controls, so that it is not easy for a hacker to move laterally through the system.

On campus, have two separate and secure wireless networks, one for staff and one for students, and if possible, a third for visitors.

Introduce and enforce a robust staff password policy and encourage everyone to keep their access credentials confidential at all times. Never use the same password for several websites or services, because if one is stolen, all your accounts are under risk. To create strong hack proof passwords without having to face the struggle of remembering them, use password managers, such as Kaspersky Password Manager. It’s available for purchasing on its own, but it’s also included as part of Kaspersky Total Security. To celebrate the beginning of the school year, users purchasing consumer solutions will get a discount of up to 30%.

Use a reliable security solution for comprehensive protection from a wide range of threats, such as Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business.

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TECHDIGEST – Kaspersky experts took a close look at the phishing pages aimed at potential crypto investors as well as the malicious files that are distributed under the names of the 20 most popular cryptocurrency wallets.

Since the beginning of 2022, Kaspersky products detected and prevented almost 200 000 attempts to steal users’ digital currencies and credentials to their wallets via phishing. The number of such attempts almost reached 50 000 in April, which is half of the indicators for the first quarter of 2022. Crypto wallets are the primary target for scamming and malicious activity.

With the boom in digital currencies observed over the past five years, Kaspersky experts have seen various cybercriminal tactics used to steal cryptocurrency – from luring victims with gifts sent by crypto exchanges to distributing Trojanized DeFi wallets. Crypto wallets are the primary target for scammers because they are the initial place of storage for cryptocurrency and deal with large amounts of virtual money.

READ ALSO: SABRE2022: NITDA Wins African PR Award For Excellence

In 2022, Kaspersky products have recorded 193,125 phishing attempts aimed at potential crypto investors or users interested in cryptocurrency mining. Throughout the first quarter of this year, Kaspersky experts discovered about 107,000 attempts. Then in April alone there were nearly 50,000 attempts – that is nearly half of the previous quarter in a single month.

Fraudsters mimic the original crypto wallets’ websites and lure victims to enter a personal seed-phrase, a secret phrase of 12 or 24 words that ensures the security of the wallet, along with a password and private key. Once the user shares their secret phrase, they’re redirected to the real website, however, their account and all of their savings are now in the scammer’s hands.

In fact, crypto wallets have become the target of numerous malicious and scamming activities, including not only phishing pages disguised as the most popular wallets but also malware distributed in their names. Kaspersky experts took a close look into the malicious files that are distributed using the names of 20 of the most popular cryptocurrency wallets.

As a result, they found that within the first five months of 2022, Kaspersky products had prevented more than 1100 users from downloading more than 1400 different variants of malicious files spread under the analysed crypto wallet names.

Out of the discovered malicious files, 75% were exploiting the Binance exchange. This was followed by Electrum (10%) and MetaMask (9%). Most often fraudsters distributed Trojan downloaders, programs that download and install new versions of other malicious programs. However, among the analysed files, we also found bankers, spyware and ransomware.

“Scammers will stop at nothing to steal cryptocurrency. With the growing value of digital currencies, fraudsters have been intensifying their scamming activities toward potential investors. Phishing crypto scams deserve special attention – because they’re based on social engineering, these attacks do not require any advanced technical skills to be launched and work well for the fraudsters. They are often successful due to a user’s inattention and lack of awareness.

Hence, users need to be wary of basic scamming indicators: offers that are too generous, proposals from unknown senders as well as requests for money with the promise of future profit,” comments Alexey Marchenko, Head of Content Filtering Methods Research at Kaspersky.

To protect yourself against crypto scams, Kaspersky experts recommend:

Being vigilant. Unexpected messages about the loss of money and accounts or transfers, gifts and winnings are almost always a trick.

Always checking links carefully. It’s best not to click on any links in messages from Internet service providers at all – instead, type the address of the service into your browser.

Install a reliable antivirus solution to protect yourself against phishing. For example, Kaspersky Internet Security’s built-in anti-phishing and antifraud modules warn users about potentially dangerous sites before it’s too late.

Source: ITedgenews

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TECHDIGEST – Kaspersky’s new patented blockchain technology eases the data management process and ensures the lawful sending and processing of information. It also guarantees authentication reliability of parties involved during data transfers and ensures information confidentiality. The US Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent (US 20210021577 A1) for this technology on February 22, 2022.

According to surveys, while 70% of companies expanded their collection of personal information between 2020 and 2021, 53% of businesses can’t confirm that they are highly capable of complying with government cyber-regulations. Legislations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), have significantly increased obligations on data holders, creating demand for state-of-the-art data management technologies that can ease the compliance process.

The patent, “Systems and methods for sending user data from a trusted party to a third party using a distributed registry”, contains methods for protecting personal data from illegal transfer and processing, allowing businesses to comply with legal requirements. The technology is of particular relevance for Know Your Customer (KYC) and Client Due Diligence (CDD) service providers. Organisations can now refer to transaction records in the blockchain network to confirm parties’ consent to the transfer and processing of personal data in cases of data transfer legitimacy issues.

This control over data is achieved by forming a distributed registry in which each stage of the parties’ interactions during the sending of user data is recorded. The patented methods ensure that the distributed registry only contains the records pertaining to the facts of the personal data transmissions and the parties’ consent to such transmissions. All records are maintained in the form of hashes that are salted, signed and encrypted in a unique, patented, way.

This approach eliminates data breaches and uncontrolled data transfers by only permitting the use of ledger records by direct participants – the data sender, the data recipient and the data owner, of specific information transmissions.

“Data management technologies are a rapidly emerging worldwide trend and, as a cybersecurity company, we were interested in developing methods that can contribute to the safety of those solutions. While working on the project, we solved this security problem by providing the technical ability to confirm the transfer of data while ensuring the protection of information by not storing it in the blockchain,” comments Alexander Sazonov, inventor of the technology at Kaspersky. “The legitimisation of personal data transfer is just one use of the research results. This technology may also be applicable in other scenarios, such as the exchange of trade supporting documents or the confirmation of employees’ authority to sign off on B2B electronic interactions”.

Kaspersky will continue developing this invention and exploring its various applications and its usability across solutions

In 2021, Kaspersky was named the top Russian company patented in the US, with 43 patents published last year, as mentioned in the annual patent ranking analysis by IFI Claims Direct.

The post Kaspersky Patents Blockchain Technology For Secure Personal Data Transfer appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – There has been a noticeable development in the prominence of cryptocurrency-related phishing scams over the past few years, linked to a boom in digital currency.

While in 2021, Kaspersky products detected and prevented over 460,000 crypto-related phishing attacks overall, the company’s researchers reported over 100, 000 such attacks just in two and a half months of 2022.

Kaspersky experts are currently seeing intensified scamming activity targeting MetaMask crypto wallet users, with more than 4,000 MetaMask-related phishing attacks detected in 2022 so far.

By distributing phishing pages that show a warning of a potential account block, fraudsters can collect crypto investors’ secret seed phrases and gain access to the victim’s wallet, credentials and savings.

With the rise of NFTs throughout the past year, MetaMask gained users’ attention since it allows users to authorise their Ethereum accounts by interacting with NFT marketplaces.

READ ALSO: Cyber-Security: NITDA Increases Awareness for Safer Cyber Space

In the fraud campaign spotted by Kaspersky, victims received an email with a warning that their account will be blocked. Users are asked to verify their account by clicking on the phishing link to prevent that from happening.

The phishing page mimics the original MetaMask design, using its logo and a domain that not only includes the “MetaMask” name, but also the names of other brands.

To unblock the wallet, fraudsters ask for the victim’s personal seed-phrase (a secret phrase of 12, or 24 words) which ensures the security of the wallet, along with a password and private key.

Once the user shares this secret phrase, they’re redirected to the real MetaMask website, however, by then, their account and all of their savings will be in the scammer’s hands.

“While most crypto investors value the safety of their wallet’s password, some, especially those new to the world of cryptocurrencies, underestimate the importance of protecting their seed phrase. Overly trusting users might end up losing access to their wallets and, as a result, lose their cryptocurrency. Scammers have learned how to craft phishing pages allowing them to get access to a victims’ savings, but it is possible to recognise these pages. The MetaMask seed phrase theft campaign has all the common signs of fraudulent schemes, which can be spotted. Grammar, spelling mistakes and wrong domains always give the scammers away,” comments Roman Dedenok, security expert at Kaspersky.

To guard yourself against cryptoscams, Kaspersky experts also recommend:

Being vigilant. Unexpected messages about the loss of money and accounts, or transfers, gifts, and winnings are almost always a trick.

Always check links carefully. It’s best not to click on any links in messages from Internet service providers at all — instead, type the address of the service into your browser.

Install a reliable antivirus solution to protect yourself against phishing. For example, Kaspersky Internet Security‘s built-in antiphishing and antifraud modules warn users about potentially dangerous sites before it’s too late.

The post How To Guard Yourself Against MetaMask Cryptoscam appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – A recent Kaspersky Employee Wellbeing 2021 report unveils that while organisations regularly face employee data leakage, 36% of respondents from the META region prefer not to disclose these incidents publicly.

At the same time, staff may lack basic cybersecurity knowledge to protect themselves as only 38% of businesses offer IT security training.

According to the report, lack of external knowledge about potential cybersecurity incidents is not usually mitigated by internal efforts.

According to the research, only 38% of organisations have already implemented security education and training to ensure that employees are provided with crucial information.

In addition, more than seven in ten (76%) of those companies have experienced at least one issue relating to the quality of these services.

This includes dissatisfaction with the high complexity of courses and a lack of support or expertise on the part of the training provider.

Employees that had not been provided with basic knowledge about the importance of protective measures, can’t be expected to follow the rules.

In 2021, compliance of staff and dealing with insufficient end-user security culture is one of the top three biggest concerns for businesses when it comes to IT security – 38% of respondents cited it among the most alarming issues.

In practice, companies regularly face informational security infringements (50%), inappropriate IT resource use (53%), and improper sharing of data via mobile devices (50%).

Breach prevention requires concerted action by everyone who interacts with a corporate system and could be a potential target for attackers.

To better secure employees, companies should combine reliable protective measures with maintaining security awareness among their teams.

These include:

• Ensuring prompt patching and updating of software to prevent adversaries penetrating the system.
• Implementing high-grade encryption for sensitive data and enforcing strong credentials and multi-factor authentication.
• Using effective endpoint protection with threat detection and response capabilities to block access attempts, and managed protection services for efficient attack investigation and expert response.
• Minimising the number of people with access to crucial data. Breaches are more likely to occur in organisations where too many employees work with confidential and valuable information that can be sold or somehow used.
• Equipping your employees with the cybersecurity skills they need.
  There is a need for the organisation to provide education that presents all the necessary and up-to-date information in an engaging format.

To save time and receive a quality service, companies should work with globally recognised providers that can ensure an efficient learning process.

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TECHDIGEST – A new study by Kaspersky has shown a direct correlation between how much time parents and their children spend on devices. With 93% of adults and 69% of little ones in Nigeria spending at least three hours on gadgets every day, the data shows that children are likely to copy the amount of time their parents spend using devices.

Children are always observing and copying what their parents do – this is also the case when it comes to their digital habits. If children can see that their parents are constantly using their devices, they will consider such behaviour the norm and spend a lot of time online. Although sometimes it can be hard to be a role model, parents should be conscious of their actions on their children’s behaviour and attempt to lead by example when it comes to rules around screen time.

The study results demonstrate the correlation between the amount of screen time of parents and children. The near half of children (51%) and adults (41%) in Nigeria each use their devices at the same time during the day – for 3-5 hours. Additionally, the majority of parents are convinced that both they (73%) and their children (70%) spend a sufficient amount of time online.

In addition to this, the results show that children actively adapt the way they use devices based on their parents’ usage. For example, globally, when 80% of parents spend less than 2 hours a day on devices, their children do too. Meanwhile, if adults use their gadgets more than 2 hours per day, children are just as likely to do the same, with only 19% of cases showing that children who are exposed to this example engage with gadgets less than 2 hours a day.

At the same time, according to the reports’ results, children whose parents regularly use devices spend more time behind the screen on various digital habits. For example, children whose parents commonly use gadgets spend an additional 39 minutes online during meals. Meanwhile, texting while carrying on conversations adds to children an average of 41 minutes of screen time and sharing family photographs on social media adds a further 31 minutes per day – time that really adds up.

“As we see from the data, the more hours parents spend on gadgets the more hours children are likely to spend on theirs. Parents want to ensure better screen-time balance for their children and their main challenge is how to achieve this. Today there are tools available that can help parents improve digital wellbeing for their children and ensure their screen time is secure and balanced. Setting an example themselves is also a great option,” comments Marina Titova, Vice President, Consumer Product Marketing at Kaspersky.

“Children benefit far more from tangible interaction with the real world than from consuming digital information. Children younger than twelve, for example, still have a long way to go before their capacity for abstraction is comparable to that of an adult. They first have to learn to feel, hear, see, smell and taste the world. In our practice, too, parents and families’ use of digital media is always a prominent topic. Many parents are convinced that it is sufficient to clearly regulate their children’s media time and control the type of content they have access to. But instead of worrying about effective punishments, parents should first reduce their own media consumption,” comment therapists Birgitt Hölzel and Stefan Ruzas from the Munich practice Liebling + Schatz.

If you want to help your children and ensure they are using devices in a secure way, you can:

Spend more time communicating with children about online safety measures. Try paying attention to your own habits – do you use your smartphone when eating or chatting? See if there is a pattern with your children doing the same or if they react in a different way when you put away the phone.
Consider downloading parental control apps and discussing this topic with your child to explain how such apps work and why they need them to stay secure online.
Ask your child not to agree with any privacy settings on their own and ask for parents’ help. Adults should get in the habit of reading any privacy agreements as well.
About the survey

In September 2021, Kaspersky commissioned Sapio to conduct an online survey of 11,000 respondents to explore the role of healthy digital habits in the family, as well as the effect of parenting habits on children and vice versa. The survey involved adults who live with their children aged 7-12 years old, full-time. The sample included 1,000 respondents from the UK, France, and Germany; and 500 in each of the following: US, Turkey, Egypt, Brazil, Colombia, Russia, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico.

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TECHDIGEST – Kaspersky unveils a free platform with tips and tricks for small businesses to help them quickly improve their organisation’s security.
Kaspersky Cybersecurity on a Budget provides a set of short but actionable recommendations relevant for any company, as well as specific, but still easy to follow tips for different verticals and business needs.

This includes data and communication protection, secure use of various digital platforms, website security and much more.

Small businesses need to carefully balance their expenses to keep going as the pandemic continues, even after restrictions are lifted. According to a new Kaspersky report “How small businesses got through 2020-2021: Budget cuts, product launches, and new investment priorities”, in 46% of all Nigerian businesses, financial difficulties seen during the past 12-months will likely become permanent, so business leaders will have to carefully choose what to spend money on.

Further research showed that this choice is often not in favour of cybersecurity. 44% of local small businesses struggle with funding for cybersecurity improvements even if they realise the importance of protection from cyberthreats.

Kaspersky Cybersecurity on a Budget should encourage such companies to fill the gap or check their cybersecurity readiness while staying on budget.

In the main three sections of the platform, visitors can learn best practices around most general routines and processes in any business, such as how to safeguard client databases, reports and other important data; how to spend less on IT and how to organise a company’s internal and external communication.

In addition to the general recommendations, there are guidelines for specific business needs – for example, if a company operates in the healthcare sector or works with intellectual property or hires freelancers.

All these aspects demand extra actions to protect data or meet the requirements of authorities.

These ‘to-dos’ are given in an interactive format, where the user must answer a short question then get a tip, to help them quickly receive exactly the recommendation they need.

All of the advice is short but actionable, with instructions that can be implemented quickly and don’t require hard IT or cybersecurity skills. That means a business owner or any employee in the firm is able to use the hub. For those who want to dig deeper, the cards suggest links to dedicated Kaspersky blog posts.

“At Kaspersky, we are confident that by following basic rules, organisations can achieve an essential level of cyber protection in a short time and without additional resources. Be it a small construction company, a cafe or a marketing agency, the platform works for anyone,” says Evgeniya Naumova, executive vice president corporate business at Kaspersky. “The pandemic hit small businesses hard so finance and resources may be limited today. This is one more argument towards investing a few minutes to read and a few hours to implement recommendations that will then help to keep your business protected.”

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