Charities Raise Concern over Sexting Blackmail During Lockdown 

  • Charities including the NSPCC and Meic – a helpline for younger people in Wales – are concerned more young people are sharing naked images of themselves
  • A13 year old girl was duped into sending sexually explicit photographs to someone she met online, who she has now found out is an adult posing as someone else.  She  said “he’s threatened to share those pictures with my friends unless I send him more”
  • “Many young people want to send them because it has been normalised in terms of social media,” said Sabiha Azad, who works on Meic’s helpline for children and young people
  • The charities believe a significant increase in the time teenagers are spending online and a lack of face-to-face interaction has added to the pressure

Google Play Store Advertised Stalkerware to Track Spouses

  • Google is correcting a “typo” in its Play Store “stalkerware” policy that currently suggests that apps can be used to track spouses
  • campaigners say stalkerware and other tracking software is dangerous, because it can facilitate domestic abuse and harassment of partners
  • Currently, the policy also mistakenly says parents cannot track their children.
  • The updated developer policy, which comes into effect on October 1st, now explicitly says that Play Store apps which allow parents to track their children are acceptable, but that they cannot be used to track adults (like a spouse) without their knowledge or permission
  • Google’s rules state that apps cannot mislead users about their tracking functionality. Apps must “present users with a persistent notification and unique icon that clearly identifies the app” and they’re not allowed to hide tracking behavior

Twitter Rolls out Security Features to Prevent Chaos on US Election day

  • Twitter will start prompting high-profile political accounts to take heightened security measures ahead of the 2020 US election, the company announced on Thursday
  • In a blog post, Twitter said that administration officials, Members of Congress, political campaigns, major news outlets, political journalists, and other government officials will be prompted to take enhanced security measures ahead of the election
  • Over the next few days, Twitter will be automatically turning on password reset protection for these accounts while recommending that these high-profile users turn on two-factor authentication. These accounts will also be required to use strong passwords
  • Twitter wrote in a blog post on Thursday. “As we learn from the experience of past security incidents and implement changes, we’re also focused on keeping high-profile accounts on Twitter safe and secure during the 2020 US election.”

Cyber Threat to Disrupt Start of University Term

  • Universities and colleges are being warned by the UK’s cyber-security agency that rising numbers of cyber-attacks are threatening to disrupt the start of term
  • ]The National Cyber Security Centre has issued an alert after a recent spike in attacks on educational institutions in the UK
  • There  have been “ransomware” incidents which block access to computer systems
  • Paul Chichester, the NCSC’s Director of Operations, says such attacks are “reprehensible”
  • The return to school, college and universities, which are  already facing problems with Covid-19, now face an increased risk from cyber-attacks, which the security agency says could “de-rail their preparations for the new term”