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Safely Back to School: Cyber security in the age of online learning

Posted at 8:12 AM, Jul 28, 2020
and last updated 2020-07-28 10:20:20-04

With cyber learning becoming more of the trend these days, some parents might worry about how they can keep their kids' personal information secure.

Online security company, CMIT Solutions, offered some helpful tips as kids and parents get ready for a new school year that might include online classes.

Larry Deniston urged parents to keep an eye on what apps their students are downloading and make sure parents enable permissions so they are notified when a child attempts to download an app.

Another tip is to watch out for phishing emails. According to Deniston, make sure the address is coming from a legitimate source, and don't click any links that look suspicious.

It's also a good idea to track your devices.

"You should probably turn on tracking, so that you can find [your device] if you lose it," Deniston explained.

"Nowadays, our mobile devices have so much personal information. And, obviously, you also need to make sure that when your phone is locked. It requires a really heavy duty password to get back in."

Deniston reminded kids and parents to be careful opening and responding to text messages from numbers they don't know.

"One of the things in the new iOS 14 is that it allows you to say, don't let the phone ring if they're not in my contacts"

One final tip for learning from home, Deniston suggested that students get rid of all distractions: turn off or silent their phone and close out apps or web pages.