Page 22 - SAMENA Trends - March 2020

COVID-19 VS TELECOM INDUSTRY SAMENA TRENDS

With COVID-19, Child Online Safety Risks

and Child Exploitation Rise

Cybersecurity and protection of business IT environment now must become a top priority. As the Corona virus
has restricted our daily life and many employees now work from home, we risk seeing an increase in the
consumption of child abuse materials online, leaving millions of children exposed to being exploited.

In 2018, NetClean conducted a study which
showed that 1 in 500 work computers was
used to handle (download, consume or
share) child sexual abuse material. The
study also showed that most of the alerts,
triggered by detection software, occurred
when the computer was away from the
workplace. The study was conducted with
a number of NetClean customers, who
together had an installation base of nearly
270 000 work computers. The timing of
the alerts was often outside of working
hours (during evenings, holidays, leave
and work trips), and also during down-
time in the workplace, e.g., during lunch
hours or early in the morning. The study
also showed that it was not uncommon
for individuals to turn off the Internet and
network connection in an attempt to avoid (IWF) in the UK, the National Center for make all the difference. The interviewed
detection. Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in businesses reported that in the majority of
the US and UNICEF. cases where they had further knowledge
In this unprecedented situation where of the case (more than the alert itself),
the COVID-19 disease has changed our Increase in circulation of child sexual the police had found further material or
daily routines and has forced a large abuse material catalogue structures that clearly contained
section of staff to work from home, it On 27 March, the Swedish National Police online child sexual abuse material on the
is not unreasonable to assume that the reported that they had seen increased computer. When the police conducted
risk of child sexual abuse material being offender activity in forums, where offenders house searches at the employee’s home,
downloaded, consumed or shared via the openly expressed that there is easy access more material had been found in a majority
work computer is increasing. By protecting to children online at the moment. They also of cases.
the business IT environment, children will reported seeing an increase in the sharing
also be protected. of child sexual abuse material online Finding and stopping the spread of images
following the Corona crises. We must act is important to stop the re-victimization
Reports of risk to children swiftly to combat this now and prepare for that occurs every time a child sexual abuse
There have been numerous recent reports a future where our children might be more image is shared and viewed. By following
of the increased risk to children when they vulnerable online, whether this be due the trail of a detected image, more images
spend more unsupervised time on the to another virus epidemic or because of can be found and victims can be identified
internet as a result of the Corona crises, developments in technology. and rescued.
closed schools and millions of people
social distancing or in quarantine. Stopping the spread of child exploitation If all businesses and organisations in the
online world – billions of computers and networks
On March 23, the FBI warned that school The business survey from the NetClean – took appropriate action, the opportunity
closings due to COVID-19 present an Report 2018 showed that the majority (but to find and disrupt the spread of online child
increased risk of child exploitation. Similar not all) alerts triggered on work computers sexual material would increase infinitely.
warnings have come from many NGOs followed from the consumption of one or With millions of people now working from
such as the Internet Watch Foundation two illicit images. Still, just one image can home, this is as important as ever.

Courtesy: NetClean
22 MARCH 2020