The Ministry of Transport and Communications has asked residents to go to “trusted shops to get their cell phones' problems fixed” to avoid possible hacking of data.
“If you want to fix your phone, always go to trusted places to avoid exposing your data to hacking, even if you took the required precautions,” the ministry writes in its cyber security awareness campaign (#secure4safety) being run for many months on its social media platforms.
In a recent post of the ministry appeared the other day it said that fewer than 10% youth in Qatar have reported being bullied online. "18% youth report being exposed to inappropriate content while 42% reported receiving friend requests from unknown people," the ministry said in a post titled "Online Social Networking Risks".
To protect residents from possible cyber threats particularly “digital identity theft” cases, the Ministry of Transport and Communication’s campaign #secure4safety is a laudable effort to create awareness among people to avoid cyber threats.
The awareness campaign gives valuable tips to social media users which can save them from blackmailing and other internet related crimes. “To be safe while using public Wi-Fi, always access secure websites & apps, and avoid inserting any sensitive information,” another post of the ministry asks the residents.
"A good number of pieces of information or advice shared by the ministry in #secure4safety campaign are apparently small and IT-literate people already know them but they are useful for the general public who usually either neglect them or unaware of those facts which can expose them to cyber blackmailing," said Neros, a resident working with a private company.
Few months back, Lieutenant-Colonel Ali Hassan Al Kubaisi, Head of Economic Crimes Combating Section at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ministry of Interior, had also said that the modes of cyber-crimes were constantly changing with the advancement of technology and cyber-criminals were altering the shape of their crimes. He had said that fraud and blackmail were considered the most dangerous cyber crimes.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications also encourages users to install anti-malware software. “Anti-malware is a software designed to prevent, detect and remediate malicious programming on devices and IT systems. It is important to install it on your smart devices.”
Another message says: “Some people may not be concerned about the privacy and security of their photos. But what if someone stole them! Could you imagine seeing a social account with your data and photos?! This is what's called digital identity theft.”
One message of the campaign tells people to always have backup data. “Don't forget to backup your smartphone data & never keep critical information on it.” Another post advises people to avoid sharing sensitive information on social media accounts. “Even if your account is private and even if you trust your followers, don't share any personal or sensitive information.”
The #secure4safety campaign has everything to teach from a third party application to anti-theft software. “Anti-theft software is security software which specializes in providing security against smartphone theft, and can make you swipe your phone remotely in case it's lost or stolen. So make sure you have one of these applications on your phone.”
Internet criminals, one post of the ministry says, “will make you think something happened that requires your reaction. So always double check before reacting.”
The campaign asks people to “use strong passwords, multi-factor authentication & set different passwords for each account”.
