Mrs Shivani Sood and Mrs Anjana Vashishtha attended a workshop on Women’s online safety at DPS, Greater Noida on 14 Feb 2020 conducted by Mr Rakshit Tandon, Cyber Security Expert and Consultant Safe Surfing Campaign at IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India).
The workshop was attended by female teachers from various schools and girl students of the host school. It aimed at making the attendees aware of the various threats that they could face if the internet was not used wisely. As the internet finds application in almost all walks of our daily life, be it Social media, E-mails, browsing information, digital payments, online shopping, etc. it has to be used with extreme care and awareness to avoid any case of cyber-crime.
The speaker focused on various issues faced by women like Cyberstalking, impersonation with fake accounts, blackmailing with personal content, sexting, revenge porn, mobile hacking, bank frauds and online scams. He advised women to be cautious while doing any online transactions and not to give away important details without proper verification. They should secure their Facebook, Instagram, mail and Whats app accounts with two-step verification and keep difficult passwords.
If they find that their account has been hacked, they should immediately follow two important steps – Blocking and Reporting. Morphing is another cyber-crime which affects women in the present scenario. Cybercriminals blackmail students and women with morphed pictures. The attendees of the workshop were informed about a new photo guard feature launched by Facebook which bars access to friends or strangers from downloading or sharing one’s photos.
The ladies were made aware of various scams by discussing case studies of cyber-crimes and the way to prevent them. They were advised to Ignore any comments or messages from unknown people and block them without any communication.
It was emphasized to use Atm cards at secure machines only. They were also informed about the Guides of safety rules specially made by Facebook for women and the official website www.cybercrime.gov.in to ensure their safety. The workshop ended with a message for the women to keep themselves safe by being a little more alert and aware. It was definitely an eye-opening and a very informative session.
