VIJAYAWADA: Ever since a pandemic began, Internet traffic has increased considerably. From government and corporate meetings to school classes, everything is taking place on online platforms. However, the issue of cybersecurity, especially during virtual classes, has largely remained unaddressed.
Although the virtual classes are now a must to complete school/college syllabus and keep students constructively engaged, experts feel that educational institutions must give due importance to cybersecurity also. With schools not opening for one more month, teachers will continue taking online classes through video calling software platforms such as Google Meet, Zoom and Webex Meet among others, they say.
“Before continuing with their classes, the institutions must consult cybersecurity experts. Even those studying for the same can guide them,” K Sivaji, inspector at Cyber Crime Branch (CCB) Police Station, Vijayawada, told TNIE.
“Advancement in technology has certainly helped us during the pandemic. But it has also encouraged hackers and other unscrupulous elements,” he pointed out.
Explaining the steps to prevent children from getting exposed to adult content or lured into a scam, he said, “The onus of providing cybersecurity lies on the institutions. They must ensure that they use legal applications and share the user identity (user id) and password only with the teachers. Almost all legal apps have the option of ‘waiting’ or ‘accept entry’ through which the host can control as to who can attend the classes. With attendance being mandatory for each class, the schools should ask for every student’s IP address so that in case of any ‘unforeseen’ activity, the culprit can be traced soon,” he said.
In the past few months, he observed that there have been instances of uninvited users attending the online classes and posting adult material or getting in touch with the students. “We traced the presence of a few phishing websites and accounts. We are keeping a close eye out for them...”