Latest news with #digitalSafety
Khaleej Times
02-07-2025
- Khaleej Times
12 arrested in Dubai for trafficking 50kg of drugs hidden in sweets
The suspects allegedly marketed the products through social media, targeting younger audiences. Officials stressed the need to boost awareness of online risks, urging families to take an active role in educating children about the dangers of the digital world.
Khaleej Times
24-06-2025
- Khaleej Times
Building a safer digital world where teens can thrive
In an age where smartphones are handed to children as young as seven, the question isn't whether kids will be online, but how they can be safe while they are. That's the driving force behind HMD's latest initiative, a bold reimagining of what technology should look like for the next generation. At the helm of this movement is Sanmeet Singh Kochhar, Senior Vice-President for Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa at HMD. Backed by sobering new research and powered by a coalition of global experts, HMD is taking a stand: children deserve technology that is as safe as it is smart. 'The world our teens are growing up in is profoundly different from the one we knew,' says Kochhar. 'While technology opens incredible doors, it also exposes kids to real risks.' The statistics tell a chilling story. In collaboration with Perspectus Global, HMD found that 51% of children globally have been contacted by strangers online, and 40% have encountered harmful or explicit content. These aren't isolated cases, they represent 556 million children who could be at risk. For Kochhar and the HMD team, the findings weren't just numbers; they were a call to action. 'Digital safety shouldn't be an afterthought,' he says. 'It should be built in from the start.' Parents Caught in the Middle Modern parents face a no-win situation. Give a child an unrestricted smartphone, and open the door to cyberbullying, inappropriate content, and screen addiction. Withhold it, and risk social exclusion or stifled curiosity. HMD's research found that more than half of parents regret giving their child a phone too early. 'What's missing is a middle path,' Kochhar explains. 'Parents are looking for tech that respects their child's curiosity , while still protecting them. That's exactly where HMD wants to lead.' HMD's response is more than just a product — it's a philosophy. The Better Phone Project was born from a single, provocative question: What if a child's first phone was actually designed for them? Rather than starting with assumptions, HMD started by listening. Over 12 months, the team collaborated with parents, educators, teens, and mental health experts across 84 countries. The result is a new kind of device one rooted in empathy, trust, and control. Fusion X1: Tech with teenagers in mind The flagship outcome of this initiative is the HMD Fusion X1, a smartphone crafted specifically for teens and their families. Unlike traditional smartphones, it integrates safety features from the ground up not bolted on as afterthoughts. Among its standout features: Tamper-proof parental controls GPS tracking with geo-fenced safety zones Screen-time management tools Communication restricted to approved contacts Optional social media and web access, unlocked only when the parent deems the child ready 'It gives kids their digital independence,' says Kochhar, 'without handing them the entire internet on day one.' HMD isn't stopping at hardware. They've partnered with SafeToNet, a cutting-edge AI platform that filters harmful content in real time before it reaches a child. Unlike traditional tools that simply report on past behavior, SafeToNet actively prevents exposure in the first place, all while respecting the child's privacy. 'HMD will be the first phone provider in the world to integrate this level of real-time protection directly into our smartphones,' Kochhar notes. 'It's a game-changer.' The Response: Empowered Parents, Respected Teens Early feedback from families who've trialed the Fusion X1 has been overwhelmingly positive. 'Parents tell us this is the first phone that gives them peace of mind not because it limits their child, but because it supports them,' says Kochhar. 'Kids, in turn, don't feel punished or micromanaged. The Fusion X1 creates a shared digital space where trust grows, not tension.' Looking ahead, HMD sees this as just the beginning. Kochhar hints at a broader family-focused tech ecosystem in development including wearables, content, and services all tailored to evolving family needs. With governments increasingly regulating digital wellbeing and schools promoting healthier screen habits, HMD believes this moment is ripe for public-private partnerships that can shape a safer digital world. Kochhar's message to hesitant parents is clear: 'You don't have to choose between protection and connection. The safer digital world you want is possible. It starts with smarter tools, transparent design, and a commitment to empathy.' For HMD, supporting families isn't just a strategy it's a mission. 'We're not here to replace parenting,' says Kochhar. 'We're here to support it. Kids shouldn't just survive the digital world they should thrive in it.'
Zawya
17-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Yango Group collaborates with the Rashid Center for People of Determination
Dubai, UAE – Yango Group, the global tech company, has partnered with the Rashid Center for People of Determination to launch a comprehensive offering designed to enhance learning, transportation, and digital safety for their students. This initiative supports the UAE's vision of fostering inclusive education and digital advancement following His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's landmark mandate to make artificial intelligence a subject in schools across the country. Artificial intelligence is expected to become a cornerstone of the UAE's economy, with forecasts from PwC estimating AI's contribution to reach $96 billion by 2030. Ensuring that all students can engage with AI and digital technologies is critical for building an inclusive future workforce. The partnership between Yango Group and the Rashid Center for People of Determination aims to bridge this gap by providing tailored tools and services that meet the needs of students of determination. As part of the collaboration, Yango Group has donated smart speakers powered by a bilingual, human-like AI assistant, Yasmina, to the Rashid Center for People of Determination. These devices support voice interaction in both Arabic and English, giving students an accessible way to engage with technology. Furthermore, to support students and families connected to the center, Yango Ride will offer 60 rides per user annually, discounted at 20%, easing transportation costs. Complementing these efforts, Yango Play, the company's entertainment and streaming platform, will provide free yearly subscriptions to the Rashid Center for People of Determination and its students, offering a range of carefully curated Arabic-language content that is both educational and age-appropriate, designed to promote a safe and enriching media environment. 'With AI now shaping the future of education, work, and communication, it's vital that students of determination are not left on the margins,' commented Islam Abdul Karim, the Regional Head of Yango Group Middle East. 'This partnership is about removing barriers across learning, mobility, and access to technology. Every child deserves the chance to grow with confidence in a world that's increasingly digital, and we are proud to contribute to that journey.' 'We are deeply grateful to Yango Group for their thoughtful and forward-thinking support. This partnership reflects a shared belief that students of determination deserve every opportunity to thrive in today's digital world. By providing accessible technology, safe transportation, and inclusive educational tools, Yango is not only opening doors but also inspiring confidence in our students. Together, we are building a future where no child is left behind,' stated Mariam Othman, Director of the Rashid Center for People of Determination Starting from September this year, the partnership will expand to include monthly AI learning classes tailored to the needs of students of determination. These interactive sessions will introduce key AI concepts in ways that build confidence and digital skills, preparing students for future opportunities. The company will also host digital safety workshops for students, families, and educators, covering topics such as online protection, content rating understanding, and secure streaming practices. The Rashid Center for People of Determination will also work with Yango Ride to train drivers on how to provide compassionate and accessible service to passengers of determination, ensuring safe and respectful travel. This collaboration is part of Yango Group's ongoing commitment to inclusive innovation. By combining efforts in education, transportation, and digital safety, Yango Group and the Rashid Center for People of Determination are creating opportunities for people of determination to participate fully and confidently in the UAE's digital future. About Yango Group Yango Group is a tech company that transforms global technologies into everyday services tailored for local communities. With an unwavering commitment to innovation, the company reshapes and enhances leading cutting-edge technologies from around the world into seamlessly integrated daily services for diverse regions. The mission is to bridge the gap between world-leading innovations and local communities, fostering connections and enhancing everyday living experiences.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Yahoo
Heading to a Protest This Weekend? Lock Down Your Phone First
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing. This week, people are protesting all across America. Before you head out to join them, take a few minutes to assess your digital safety. Your phone is a treasure trove of information about you. Even if you have nothing to hide, you don't want to accidentally give law enforcement officials any information you didn't intend to share. Follow these tips to lock down your phone before a protest or other peaceful assembly. When we tell people that their best defense at a protest is just to turn off their phones, they always seem disappointed. But it's true. The best way to keep from being surveilled is never to be on the grid in the first place. Unfortunately, this isn't practical advice. For one thing, mobile phones are useful for staying safe and coordinating with your friends and fellow protestors. For another, protestors document events and amplify their message by sharing photos, videos, and live streams in the moment. While shutting your phone off will certainly make you harder to track, it could also leave you without important tools to protect yourself. Your phone is powerful because it combines cellular, GPS, and Wi-Fi information. That great power is also a weakness: they're highly trackable. For example, federal and local law enforcement use Stingrays and other IMSI catchers to track and identify protestors. These devices can trick your phone into connecting with them instead of a cell tower, then intercept information (such as SMS messages) without you necessarily realizing it. They can also extract information from your phone and track your movements. Even without fancy devices, though, law enforcement may be able to obtain information on your movements and activities from your wireless provider. Even Apple and Google may be willing to give up information about you. The companies have cooperated with law enforcement by handing over customer data in the past, though both companies typically challenge or reject information requests that are legally objectionable. Keep in mind that you probably won't know that you're being monitored or tracked until much later, if at all. Intercepting and processing individual messages from hundreds of thousands of people is doable, but not easy. Law enforcement or government agencies want to know who is at an event, who they are with, and what information can be extracted to monitor them later. Many smart devices track your location through multiple means. This is useful for getting directions and finding things nearby, but it can also allow law enforcement to extract your movements after the fact. For example, pictures you take with a smartphone frequently include their physical locations, and Google Maps maintains records of your movements in its Your Timeline section. Shut off Wi-Fi. Disable location services until you absolutely need them. Ditto Bluetooth. If you don't need to use your data connection, switch it off, too. However, this may hamper your ability to use encrypted communications. Again, if you can, leave your phone at home. If not, at least shut it down. You can also be tracked without your phone, even in a large crowd. Facial-recognition technology coupled with AI-powered detection can pick out and track individuals in groups. Airborne surveillance using anything from conventional aircraft to small radio-controlled quadcopters to military-style drones can monitor the movements of individuals and track them over time. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) maintains an excellent primer on identifying those surveillance systems, which can include police bodycams, automated-license-plate-reader cameras, and more. Over the years, social media has played a large role in organizing protests and amplifying demonstrators' messages. However, the information posted to these platforms can also be used as open-source intelligence for anyone trying to track who attends demonstrations. Sharing photos and videos from protests can amplify the message, but this information could also be used to implicate you or others. The EFF recommends taking steps to remove metadata from images. Remember that even if you are comfortable being identified in images, others may not be. Consider framing your camera to show as little of people's faces as possible or blurring faces when you share photos or videos. And it never hurts to ask before sharing someone's face online. If you're concerned about being identified for any reason, consider covering identifiable tattoos and wearing inconspicuous clothing. Obscuring your own face can be useful as well. If you bring a phone to a protest, know that it could be confiscated by law enforcement or stolen by someone in the crowd. Either way, once it's is out of your hands, it could be unlocked, and its contents dumped for future analysis. Most modern devices unlock with biometrics (such as facial recognition or thumbprint scanning). Biometric systems may put you at a disadvantage, though, when you're dealing with law enforcement. In its guide for protestors, the EFF writes: "Under current US law—which is still in flux—using a memorized passcode generally provides a stronger legal footing to push back against a court order of compelled device unlocking/decryption." It's better to disable biometrics and enable password or PIN logins before a protest. You may also want to do this when traveling, too. Modern Apple and Android devices support modes that temporarily disable biometrics. However, once you unlock your phone, it reverts to using biometrics. If you don't have the time to fully disable biometrics beforehand, on Android, hold the power button and select lockdown. On an iOS phone, hold the power and volume up buttons for a few seconds until you see the power off, medical ID, and Emergency SOS screen. Tap cancel, and the phone will require your passcode to unlock instead of biometric authentication. Disable biometric logins and enable a passcode. Enable encryption. Most Android and Apple devices will do this automatically when you enable a passcode or biometrics, but double-check in the Settings menu. Remove unnecessary apps and reinstall them later. Even when not in use, some apps can send and receive data. This can slow down an already spotty connection and could be used to monitor your activity. Log out of any apps you won't need. By default, you usually need to log in to an app only once to use it, which can be a problem when you're not in control of your phone. If you back up your phone (and you should), make sure that your backups are secure with a complex, unique password and multi-factor authentication. This may require making changes to your Apple or Google accounts. To help you get started, see our guides to backing up iPhones and Android devices. Enable the remote-control features built into Android and iOS so you can wipe or disable a lost or confiscated phone remotely. Use secure messaging, and set text messages to delete automatically. (More on this below.) Whether you're protesting or just chatting with your family, use encrypted communications whenever possible. These systems ensure that if your messages are intercepted, they will be unreadable except to the intended recipients. Our top recommendation for secure messaging is Signal. We recommend it because the app and its protocol are open-source, so it has been carefully examined for potential flaws and endorsed by security experts. The app looks and works just like your existing messaging client. You can also use it to make encrypted VoIP and video calls. One particularly useful feature of Signal is that your messages can be set to expire. This way, there's little trace of your previous conversations in the app. Other secure messaging apps have similar features. WhatsApp is particularly notable, as it has wider adoption than Signal but uses the same technology to secure messages. Both WhatsApp and Signal have powerful tools for group chats that also make them useful for organizing protests. In most cases, the iPhone uses end-to-end encryption when sending messages between you and other iPhone users. So whenever you see the blue bubble around text, you can rest assured that if the message is intercepted, it cannot be read. Keep in mind that iPhones don't always send encrypted messages. With poor connectivity, iPhones sometimes fail over to unsecured SMS messages, and messages sent to Android users are not encrypted. It's also possible, no matter what secure messaging platform you use, that screenshots of your messages could be shared with people you did not intend. As always, consider that someone might see your messages, even when they're sent securely. If you have the means to do so, consider purchasing a completely different phone for the protest and leaving your personal devices at home. Several affordable Android phones are available, and many wireless carriers can provide a prepaid service for your device. There are also low-cost plans from smaller carriers. If you haven't used a so-called "dumbphone" in a while, take this opportunity to try one out. When I wanted to experience life with a flip phone again, I purchased a Nokia 2780 to bring on camping trips. I haven't had trouble using it for calls and texting. If you opt to go this route, remember to secure the new one as you would your regular phone. If it's not going to be used for other activities, you can lock it down even more. Here are some ideas: Don't install non-essential apps. Don't connect the new phone to any of your cloud services, like your Google account. If you must log into an app to use it, see if you can enable a secondary PIN on the app itself. Signal offers the ability to require a PIN to unlock the app. Store only information in your Contacts app for people who are absolutely essential. Consider not using real names in your address book. There are a lot of methods you can use to lock down your phone, but the best advice we can give is to leave any devices with location-gathering capabilities (including your smartwatch) at home. You should also take a few minutes today to lock down your online presence. Read our guide to completely disappearing online, and lock down your family's home network using our cybersecurity checklist.
Associated Press
04-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Gen Named One of America's Best Cybersecurity Companies for 2025 by Newsweek
We're proud to announce that Gen has been named one of America's Best Cybersecurity Companies for 2025 by Newsweek! It's a testament to how our family of brands is making a difference, whether it's protecting your data, securing your devices or supporting your financial wellness. Big thanks to our team. And thanks to all of the people, all over the world, who trust us to help safeguard their digital lives. View the full list: Visit 3BL Media to see more multimedia and stories from Gen Digital Inc.
