The United Kingdom National Crime Agency (NCA), through its National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), has launched an initiative with which they intend to raise awareness among British youth and move them away from cybercriminal practices. The Agency decided to implement this plan after detecting a 107% increase in reports of cyberattacks against academic institutions.
The initiative aimed at students searching for terms associated with cybercrime on school computers. Instead of arriving at a website blocked by school policies, students will find a warning message and a suggested redirect to the Cyber Choices website, intended to educate children of all ages about the Computer Misuse Act and other suggested topics.
The authorities plan to reduce denial of service (DoS) incidents affecting schools and university centers, as sometimes students seek these terms and unknowingly reach services of stress or saturation of systems. The testing stage of this project shows a considerable reduction in these incidents during the most recent weeks.
In this regard, the Deputy Director of the NCCU mentions: “Education is a fundamental pillar for crime prevention; this campaign is based on showing the risks and consequences of cybercrime.”
On the other hand, UK Security Minister Damian Hinds said: “Tackling cybercrime is at the heart of the Government’s new National Cyber Strategy. We need to equip this generation with the best digital skills and help them make the right decisions online.”
The official believes that cooperation between authorities and citizens is vital for the prevention of such incidents: “If we can educate children and inform them that these activities are dangerous and can cause severe consequences, we would potentially prevent their inclusion in the cybercriminal world. This is our contribution, to avoid a domino effect in terms of cybersecurity.”
To learn more about information security risks, malware variants, vulnerabilities and information technologies, feel free to access the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) websites.
He is a cyber security and malware researcher. He studied Computer Science and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2006. He is actively working as an cyber security investigator. He also worked for different security companies. His everyday job includes researching about new cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in enterprise security implementation.