Cyber Safety, Ethics and Digital Citizenship
Cyber Safety, Ethics and Digital Citizenship tests threats, protective practices, legal/ethical responsibilities, and safe reporting.
Core ideas
- Threats: malware (virus, worm, trojan, ransomware, spyware), phishing, smishing, vishing, social engineering, identity theft, cyberbullying, sextortion.
- Defences: strong unique passphrases, password manager, two-factor authentication, updates, antivirus, firewall, backups (3-2-1), encryption, least privilege.
- Phishing signs: urgency, mismatched sender, lookalike domain, generic greeting, unexpected attachment, requests for OTP/password/payment.
- Digital footprint is permanent and cumulative; privacy settings reduce but do not eliminate exposure.
- Ethics: respect copyright and licences, cite sources, avoid plagiarism, seek consent before posting others’ images, no hate speech or harassment.
- India’s Information Technology Act, 2000 (amended) addresses unauthorised access, data damage, and electronic records; report cybercrime on the national portal or police cyber cell. Keep evidence: screenshots, headers, transaction IDs.
- Digital citizenship: lawful, ethical, safe, responsible participation.
Worked example
An email says “Your bank account will be blocked in 2 hours; click this link and enter your OTP.” Reasoning: banks do not ask for OTPs; urgency is a pressure tactic; the link may lead to a lookalike site. Correct action: do not click, verify through the official app or a known phone number, report/phish to the bank, and if credentials were entered, contact the bank and change passwords. Preserve the email as evidence.
Traps
Do not forward chain emails or share OTPs. Do not use public Wi-Fi for banking without a VPN. Do not assume a padlock means safe. Do not delete evidence before reporting. Do not reuse one password across accounts. “It’s just a joke” does not excuse cyberbullying.