The rules of cybersecurity have changed

If life hasn’t already shifted dramatically under the weight of COVID with a new norm beckoning – cybersecurity issues continue to prosper like a cancer, and among them, the insidious increase of online predatory behaviour.

Working from home forms a new strategy for containing COVID, and as it forges a different realm for work, it also brings with it a perilous downside – the mental and emotional disintegration of Australian workers.

It’s the increasing feeling of isolation and remoteness which is not only having a disturbing impact, but it’s knocking the edge off us as a country – known for our easy going attitude toward life – the “she’ll be right mate” outlook, a catchcry for Aussies, has turned into a burgeoning fog of malaise, despair and helplessness.

Many Australians are struggling to deal with the anxiety, frustration and loneliness working from home brings. It’s a new realm, a foreign experience many continue to struggle transitioning to, and as the struggles continues – the hidden darkness that lurks beneath humanity is rearing its ugly head.

Reports of domestic violence are skyrocketing with COVID leaving its primary victims of violence – women and children, very few options to escape. And as domestic violence rises, so too do the prying eyes of the sneaks – the lurkers, starring over the shoulders of many Australians – where the shadowy murky world hidden within our keyboards has direct access to the privacy of our homes – focusing on the darker nefarious, seedier activities used to infiltrate our lives.

What is worse, is the general oblivion of the perils of what is at hand, and the unassuming way cybercriminals have a direct looking glass into the prism of our homes.

As COVID continues to maintain its rage, disrupting every aspect of how we live, it’s our most vulnerable, our children, who we need to safeguard and protect from what lies beneath the keyboards and behind the screens.

Never before have children been more exposed to the darkness of cybercrime than today. The unintended consequence of COVID has opened the door wider to the dark world of cybercrime.

As children are now studying from home online, they are exposed and vulnerable – anxious, desperate and needing to maintain a connectedness to the outside world and friends beyond the confines of home. For them, COVID is a time of chaos.

The continuing reign of chaos, is conflated with conspiracy theories that sprout like wild mushrooms flooding the internet – it’s the perfect storm, conditions for the right environment that adds to the daily unease and uncertainty for predators to do what they are best at doing – preying.

And so because of home learning, children are spending more than eight hours a day online, where some of that time spent interacting with adults on a daily basis.

Security in Depth has spoken to more than 58 parents over the past week and found 29 per cent of those parents had not checked and had no plans to check on their children’s online activities.

What’s even more disturbing, Security In Depth’s research has shown 53 per cent of parents had not considered cybersecurity to protect their children from online predators and cybercriminals.

For predators, it can take minutes to start grooming a child, and for many children the impact is for life.

Other statistics to emerge from government research shows nearly every five minutes a web page shows a child being sexually abused according to Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton and Australian’s are part of the problem.

During the last Financial year, the eSafety’s cyber report team investigated 13,359 items depicting child sexual abuse.

Reports have increased 97 per cent in June from this year compared to same time last year – a problem that’s increasing.

The most horrific aspect of COVID, is where child pornography can be found on the net in places like Pornhub – where anyone can upload any video with just an email address and a fake document.

We have seen reports of child exploitation surging during COVID, on sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It’s not simply evil people hiding on the dark web but it’s also internet platforms exploiting the most vulnerable for economic return- how much they can profit from by desensitising the public to these abhorrent crimes.

As one survivor said: “It’s hard to describe what it feels like to know that at any moment, anywhere, someone will be looking at my images, of me as a child being sexually abused and getting sick gratification from it.

“It’s like I’m being repeatedly abused over and over. How can I get over this when a crime is still happening to me?”

This is a COVID world and the rules of engagement are now very different.

Michael Connory is the CEO of Security In Depth.