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CYBER security prevents devastating cyber attacks. Do children need lessons on cyber attacks? Well, organisers of the 16th Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, UAE, think so.

A workshop on the issue, proclaims it. So why alert kids that early?

Cyber attacks are ruinous, on many fronts.

Every Malaysian probably knows somebody who had been scammed or hacked, with great losses. 

The damaging impacts are many. These include severe financial losses. Disruption to critical services. Damage to reputation, personal harm, identity theft. Financial ruins for individuals.

Malaysia is no exception. Reports indicate over RM1.2 billion were lost to cybercrime Jan-Oct 2024.

Reportedly, these attacks are a constantly evolving global threat.

Costing trillions worldwide, it is asserted.

Their devastating potentials affect every section of society and the economy.     

Again in Malaysia, cyber security incidents on organisations reportedly cost estimate billions in the past.

Even children get hacked: Computer engineer

As soon as his workshop dismissed, I asked Abdullah Aref, a computer engineer who conducted it.

“What is your workshop all about?”    

“It’s about cyber security, how to protect yourself from hackers, and how to make your password secure. Instead of writing an easy to hack password like 123, I taught them hard passwords, write letters like 1H23Y, for instance.”

In fact, recommended passwords are long, random, combining uppercase with lowercase letters, numbers, avoid common words or using same password across multiple accounts.  

Not sure whether he meant the UAE or Middle-east.

“It’s a very big problem, especially for kids!” Abdullah said.

“A lot of the times they get hacked without knowing. Suddenly their name, school they go etc, is on the internet!” he sprang a surprise.

“So I taught them how to protect themselves from hacking, how to know if someone is a good hacker or not. Some hackers are good, they want to let you know if your password is weak, or if you are doing something wrong on the internet. 

“But some hackers are bad, they steal information, they steal money,.. So how to know the good from the bad, who can you trust?” 

He went on. 

The Black, the White, the Grey hackers 

“There are three types of hackers – Black; White; Grey.”

“White hat hackers are good hackers. They go to people, companies, get explicit authorisation: I will hack your company, I’ll tell you what’s wrong with your program, you give me money for that.”

“Not the black hat hackers who come with malicious intent, steal the information, take the money, maybe destroy the company as well. It’s all illegal.”

“Grey hat hackers operate in a morally ambiguous area who hack into  computer systems without permission, find vulnerabilities if someone can hack it or not but with no malicious intent and request fee for fixing the problem or publish exploits to force organisation to improve its security.” 

Wow, I too, learned

Did the children learn well? 

“Most of them, yes. Some of them were still stuck on some parts, but most of them were doing great.

Big problem, ill understood

Hacking is heard daily but not understood.

“Exactly, especially kids need to understand. Adults know there is always someone who can try to hack them, but kids don’t know. They trust people very easily, maybe someone on the internet, give name, address away to say: let’s meet up, then maybe someone will steal from him.”

“They trust people very easily. So in this workshop, we are trying to tell them who is good, who is bad, how to use the internet well, and how to prevent getting hacked from other people. It’s a very important workshop,” Abdullah cited his mission. 

“It’s a big problem nowadays, especially everyone is using the internet. Everyone is playing games on social media. They have all kinds of accounts. So, it’s a very important topic to know nowadays,” he added.

Question: How big is the problem? 

“Six to eight years ago, it was very big because nobody knew how to protect against hackers. But now, it’s a little bit less. 

“It’s still a problem but not as much as before, because people know now there are bad hackers, who are good, who are bad. But do one thing, don’t keep quiet when hacked, tell the police, parents.” 

Good education, good workshop. However, some confusion remains.

Difference between hackers & scammers 

In Malaysia, we hear more about scamming than hacking.

Is hacking the same as scamming?  

“No, scams are part of the hacking problem, but mostly hacking is not related to scamming.” 

Hacking uses technical information technology skills to gain unauthorised access to computer systems and networks while scammers use deception and psychological manipulation to trick people into giving away money and information, Abdullah explained. 

“So, be very careful who you are talking with.”

“Sometimes, you receive an email purportedly from Microsoft, which says: you need to pay this much money to activate your account. In most of the cases, this is not true, this is a scam. Disclosing your bank details opens door to people to steal the money.”

Usually, there is an easy way to tell if this is a scam.

Like spelling mistakes, or instead of proper English, grammar mistakes. So be careful on the internet and not trust anyone. When see someone or something a little bit suspicious, contact the police or anyone who is knowledgeable about this topic.”