The University Grants Commission has recommended in a draft handbook of “Digital Hygiene” that secure Internet browsing, turning off webcam and computer audio when not in use, not downloading content when using public Wi-Fi, and using a password manager. Commission has created a handbook for Institutes of Higher Education so that students and teachers can be safe in “cyberspace”.
Distance learning has a number of important features that can be detrimental to the school community as a whole. Teachers, on the other hand, should be concerned about attacks during lectures in virtual classrooms while discussions are ongoing, – it said.
The handbook, which describes – newly defined behavioural protocols for students and teachers in virtual classrooms,- comes against the backdrop of the Corona-19 epidemic-driven online learning transformation.
Commission has also developed draft syllabi for undergraduate and postgraduate cyber security courses in addition to the credit scheme.
The two documents will soon be placed in the public domain to solicit feedback from stakeholders. Higher education institutions should nominate a faculty member as a cyber security officer and strive for ISO certification. Organizations should focus on implementing cyber security protocols.
The commission said it was clear that we live in a world of big data where Metadata plays an important role which is why digital footprints are always left behind to find the direction of a person in one form or another. Your likes on social media posts, the content you visit, the web cookies you visit on websites, etc. can create your digital footprint, it says.
In the emerging age of digitalisation, education requires technologically supportive learning, learning solutions and rapid innovation. Students and teachers now have access to various remote e-learning and assessment options with smart mobile devices.
The draft says that virtual classrooms have brought a different perspective to the teaching-learning process as we move towards online learning.
By keeping the privacy settings of social media profiles as strict as possible, especially for the public and others, keep in mind that some things shared online will be in cyberspace and may be abused at any time, not downloading books and apps from unreliable sources, not sharing financial information, One of the handbook’s recommendations is to install reliable anti-virus software, use a firewall and periodically clear browsing history and browser cache to prevent the use of outdated forms, protect personal information applications and help them run optimally.
Another type of fraud is employment fraud, because people are starting to look for job opportunities online. This has allowed scammers to lure people into the scam. Scammers claim positions in reputable companies, offering fake job opportunities to job seekers through various online services and making it difficult for people to determine whether the offer is valid, he said.
Trusting strangers, ignorance and underestimation of risk are among the main factors listed by the commission that put users at risk in cyberspace. Social attacks, misinformation and propaganda, deep forgery, identity theft, cyber espionage, disguise, spoofing, morphing, phishing, UPI fraud are some of the major cyber-crimes that users need to be aware of, – add a list of key handbook activities and don’t do that.
