There are many ways for you to get involved in the development process of the CIS Benchmarks and to use a Benchmark’s security recommendations.

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Molding and shaping our kids while we can is every parent’s dream. When kids are young – and sweet! – they are far more inclined to take on board our advice and lovingly imposed rules. Oh, how I miss those days!! And in a nutshell – that’s what a good set of parental controls can do for you and your kids. In my opinion, parental controls can absolutely help you create good habits but it’s essential that they are accompanied by an invested parent who’s keen to help their kids navigate the online world. 

What Can Parental Controls Do? 

With Aussie kids spending at least 5 hours online a day, it’s no secret that they can be exposed to a broad range of people, websites and themes – some potentially quite disturbing. And with most kids sporting an internet-connected phone plus a laptop, there’s no limit to what they can access – and usually when you aren’t around. 

I like to think of parental controls as another way of helping establish healthy habits and good decision-making strategies with your kids. For example, if you have told your kids there is no screen time before bed, then you are able to use Parental Controls to make that a reality. And if you have agreed that they are able to use only certain apps or social media platforms then Parental Controls can also make this happen by blocking access if they deviate. I believe that over time, these routines, and boundaries simply become part of your child’s day-to-day life and become good habits. 

McAfee’s Parental Controls, called Safe Family, can also let you view your kids’ activity online and let you know where your kids are at all times. How good??    

Doesn’t It Take Just 21 Days To Form A Habit? 

While it’s commonly believed that it takes just 21 days to form a habit, courtesy of Dr Maxwell Maltz in the 1960’s, more up-to-date research shows that it could take considerably longer. In fact, research conducted in 2010 by Health Psychology Researcher Philippa Lally at The University College in London shows that it takes around 2 months or 66 days to be precise to make a new habit stick! 

And while I love the idea that we could help our kids adopt new positive habits in just 2 months, I think we need to keep it real. Fear of missing out (FOMO) coupled with the lure of their shiny devices might mean that it takes a little more than 66 days to make a change, particularly if you are trying to modify their current usage as opposed to starting from scratch. 

Nothing Replaces The Role Of Being A Proactive Digital Parenting 

There is no-one that better understands just how time poor parents can be. Having spent the last 20 plus years rearing 4 boys and working, I feel like I’ve earnt the time poor t-shirt! So, understandably, many parents feel like they just don’t have the ‘band with’ to take on much more so digital parenting is often put in the too hard basket. And I totally get it!    

But using parental controls without some knowledge of your kids’ digital world, is a little like filling your car with petrol but not worrying about the oil. It will eventually be a problem! 

My Top 3 Digital Parenting Non-Negotiables 

So, I’m going to break it down for you. Digital parenting doesn’t have to be overwhelming, particularly if you break it down. So, in a quest to keep it simple, here are 4 things you can do to up your digital parenting game: 

1. As Soon as Your Kids Start Using Devices, Start Talking Cybersafety 

The day your child picks up a device is the day you start talking about cybersafety. If this is when they are 18 months of age, then that’s when you start. Always ensure the messages are age-appropriate and keep them simple. You could start with:  

“Remember, daddy/mummy chooses the game” 
“Let’s keep your name private online.” To help with this, why not create an online nickname for them? 
“Make sure you’re sitting near (mum/dad/nana) when you are using the iPad.” 

And when your kids get older, weave in more age-appropriate messages, such as: 

“Online friends aren’t real friends” 
“If you wouldn’t do it in person then don’t do it online” 
“Think before you post” 

Knitting cybersafety messages into your family dialogue needs to also become automatic. Talk about it just like you would sun safety or road safety. And why not share stories around the dinner table about your own online experiences or even relevant news stories to engage them in a dialogue. 

2. Create a Family Digital Contract 

I love the idea of a clear contract between parents and kids that details your expectations about their online behaviour and technology use. It’s a great way of developing a set of guidelines that will help them navigate the risks associated with being online. Now, this agreement should definitely be a family exercise so ensure your kids are invested in the process too. If you want a starting point, check out this one from The Modern Parent here.  

3. Commit to Understanding Your Child’s Digital World 

Taking some time to understand how your child spends their time online is the best way of truly understanding the risks and challenges they face. So, join ALL the social media platforms your kids are on, play their games and download their messaging apps. You will develop a better understanding of how to manage privacy settings and the language/online culture that is a big part of your child’s life. And the best part – if they know you understand their world, I have no doubt that you will develop a little ‘tech cred’ which mean that they will be more likely to come to you with any issues or problems that may face online. Awesome! 

Get Technology Working for You 

There is some amazing technology available that makes this digital parenting thing a heck of a lot easier and that includes Parental Controls. McAfee’s Safe Family is a comprehensive parental controls solution that lets you monitor and block apps and websites, manage screen time, see where your kid’s devices are at all times, and more, giving you peace of mind in an ever-mobile world. The perfect partner to an invested parent! 

Parental Controls can be an awesome way of helping your kids establish positive habits around their tech use, but they are even more impactful when combined with an invested parent who has got a good handle on the online world. So, by all means, invest in Parental Control software but also commit to ramping up your digital parenting game – it’s the best way to help set up your kids for a safe and positive experience online. And isn’t that every digital parent’s dream! 

Take Care 

Alex  

The post Can Parental Controls Can Help You Create Good Habits? appeared first on McAfee Blog.

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PCI DSS meaning

PCI DSS is a cybersecurity standard backed by all the major credit card and payment processing companies that aims to keep credit and debit card numbers safe. PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Companies can demonstrate that they’ve implemented the standard by meeting the reporting requirements laid out by the standard; those organizations that fail to meet the requirements, or who are found to be in violation of the standard, may be fined.

What is PCI DSS used for?

PCI DSS, which is administered by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, establishes cybersecurity controls and business practices that any company that accepts credit card payments must implement.

To read this article in full, please click here

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Central Bedfordshire Council failed to properly redact the details of ‘dozens and dozens’ of pupils with special educational needs when responding to a Freedom of Information request, publishing them on a public website.

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The company announced that employees’ personally identifiable information was exposed in the breach

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Microsoft advised organizations running Windows or Linux on internet-facing systems to take action

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If pro-Russian hackers had had their way, the Eurovision Song Contest could have been disrupted, potentially preventing the broadcast from being seen or meddling with the vote.

Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

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StateRamp-authorized cloud solutions like Tenable.io meet stringent security and compliance standards.

Increasingly targeted by cyber criminals, state and local governments (SLGs) need highly-secure cloud solutions. StateRAMP authorization, which involves a rigorous security and compliance evaluation, helps SLGs reduce risk and efficiently verify the security of their cloud solutions. 

Today, we’re excited to announce that Tenable.io is StateRamp authorized, meaning our SLG customers can have peace of mind knowing that our vulnerability management solution meets the strict cybersecurity standards required by federal and SLG agencies.

Achieving this milestone is part of our continued commitment to providing secure, compliant products to help our public sector customers keep their data safe and protect against breaches.

Cybersecurity stakes keep climbing for SLGs 

SLGs are on the front lines of cybersecurity. They hold access to sensitive databases and PII, and often oversee critical infrastructure. To meet citizens’ needs, SLG agencies are embracing digital technologies from mobile to IoT to cloud. With the increased amount of sensitive data to protect and an expanded attack surface, it’s no surprise that cyber attacks against SLGs are becoming more prevalent. 

To help SLG CISOs and security leaders identify truly secure and compliant cloud solutions, the State Risk and Authorization Management Program (StateRAMP) was launched. This new program provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud service providers (CSP) at the state level. The security verification model is based on the NIST SP 800-53 control framework and is modeled, in part, after FedRAMP. 

Tenable.io’s StateRamp authorization

Tenable is excited to be a part of StateRAMP’s effort to secure state and local governments. Our StateRAMP active solution, Tenable.io, provides risk-based vulnerability management so you can:

Get full visibility into the assets and vulnerabilities across your attack surface
Continuously track and assess known and unknown assets— and their vulnerabilities, even dynamic assets like mobile devices, virtual machines and cloud instances
Proactively identify and prioritize vulnerabilities with the highest impact to your organization
Get immediate insight and visualizations into your security posture

With both StateRAMP and FedRAMP authorizations, you can be assured that Tenable.io is a secure, effective and tested cloud-based vulnerability management solution that meets the high security and compliance standards of Federal and state and local government agencies. To learn more about how Tenable protects state and local governments read the Solutions Overview. 

For more information on StateRAMP read the StateRAMP FAQ.

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Rob Joyce, the director of cybersecurity at the NSA, said so in an interview:

The NSA already has classified quantum-resistant algorithms of its own that it developed over many years, said Joyce. But it didn’t enter any of its own in the contest. The agency’s mathematicians, however, worked with NIST to support the process, trying to crack the algorithms in order to test their merit.

“Those candidate algorithms that NIST is running the competitions on all appear strong, secure, and what we need for quantum resistance,” Joyce said. “We’ve worked against all of them to make sure they are solid.”

The purpose of the open, public international scrutiny of the separate NIST algorithms is “to build trust and confidence,” he said.

I believe him. This is what the NSA did with NIST’s candidate algorithms for AES and then for SHA-3. NIST’s Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Process looks good.

I still worry about the long-term security of the submissions, though. In 2018, in an essay titled “Cryptography After the Aliens Land,” I wrote:

…there is always the possibility that those algorithms will fall to aliens with better quantum techniques. I am less worried about symmetric cryptography, where Grover’s algorithm is basically an upper limit on quantum improvements, than I am about public-key algorithms based on number theory, which feel more fragile. It’s possible that quantum computers will someday break all of them, even those that today are quantum resistant.

It took us a couple of decades to fully understand von Neumann computer architecture. I’m sure it will take years of working with a functional quantum computer to fully understand the limits of that architecture. And some things that we think of as computationally hard today will turn out not to be.

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Radcliffe will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame during a keynote session at this year’s Infosecurity Europe 2022

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