This year, #scamsweek2020 comes at a time where many of us are spending more time at home, and are using a plethora of new apps and communications tools to work, learn, access information, and stay connected with loved ones.  We are joining the ACCC Scamwatch team this week to promote the importance of identifying and managing online security risks - some of which we do on your behalf without you even realising and some of which we ask you to make an informed decision about. 

When people first started staying home due to COVID-19 earlier this year, our advanced, machine-learning classifiers saw 18 million daily malware and phishing attempts related to COVID-19, in addition to more than 240 million COVID-related spam messages globally. Our security systems have detected a range of new scams circulating, such as phishing emails posing as messages from charities and NGOs, directions from “administrators” to employees working from home, and even notices spoofing healthcare providers. Our systems have also spotted malware-laden sites that pose as sign-in pages for popular social media accounts, health organisations, or even official coronavirus maps. 

To protect you from these risks, we've built advanced security protections into many Google products to automatically identify and stop threats before they ever reach you. Our machine learning models in Gmail already detect and block more than 99.9 percent of spam, phishing and malware. Our built-in security also protects you by alerting you before you enter fraudulent websites, by scanning apps in Google Play before you download, and more. But we want to help you stay secure everywhere online, not just on our products, so we’re providing these simple tips, tools and resources.

Know how to spot and avoid COVID-19 scams

With many of the COVID-19 related scams coming in the form of phishing emails, it’s important to pause and evaluate any COVID-19 email before clicking any links or taking other action. Be wary of requests for personal information such as your home address or bank details. Fake links often imitate established websites by adding extra words or letters to them—check the URL’s validity by hovering over it (on desktop) or with a long press (on mobile).

Use your company’s enterprise email account for anything work-related

Working with our enterprise customers, we see how employees can put their company’s business at risk when using their personal accounts or devices. Even when working from home, it’s important to keep your work and personal email separate. Enterprise accounts offer additional security features that keep your company’s private information private. If you’re unsure about your company’s online security safeguards, check with your IT professionals to ensure the right security features are enabled, like two-factor authentication.

Secure your video calls on video conferencing apps

The security controls built into Google Meet are turned on by default, so that in most cases, organisations and users are automatically protected. But there are steps you can take on any video conferencing app to make your call more secure:

• Consider adding an extra layer of verification to help ensure only invited attendees gain access to the meeting.
• When sharing a meeting invite publicly, be sure to enable the “knocking” feature so that the meeting organiser can personally vet and accept new attendees before they enter the meeting.
• If you receive a meeting invite that requires installing a new video-conferencing app, always be sure to verify the invitation—paying special attention to potential imposters—before installing.

Install security updates when notified

When working from home, your work computer may not automatically update your security technology as it would when in the office and connected to your corporate network. It’s important to take immediate action on any security update prompts. These updates solve for known security vulnerabilities, which attackers are actively seeking out and exploiting.

Use a password manager to create and store strong passwords

With all the new applications and services you might be using for work and school purposes, it can be tempting to use just one password for all.  In fact, 69% of Aussies admit to using the same password across multiple accounts, despite 90% knowing that this presents a security risk. To keep your private information private, always use unique, hard-to-guess passwords. A password manager, like the one built into Android, Chrome, and your Google Account can help make this easier.

Protect your Google Account

If you use a Google Account, you can easily review any recent security issues and get personalised recommendations to help protect your data and devices with the Security Checkup. Within this tool, you can also run a Password Checkup to learn if any of your saved passwords for third party sites or accounts have been compromised and then easily change them if needed.

You should also consider adding two-steps verification (also known as two-factor authentication), which you likely already have in place for online banking and other similar services, to provide an extra layer of security. This helps keep out anyone who shouldn't have access to your accounts by requiring a secondary factor on top of your username and password to sign in. To set this up for your Google Account, go to g.co/2SV.

Posted by Samantha Yorke, Government Affairs and Public Policy Senior Manager, Google Australia

It’s National Child Protection Week - a week to think about how we can play our part to keep kids safe. At Google, we know how important it is to protect and educate young people on using the Internet.

One of the things we do is provide parents and teachers with tools to help them choose what content their children see online, such as Google SafeSearch and Safety Mode on YouTube. You can learn how to use these tools on our Family Safety Centre.

We also work closely with Australian organisations dedicated to educating and protecting young people. Our partner, Bravehearts, is holding White Balloon Day today. This is a day to raise awareness for the victims of child sexual assault. It’s also Bravehearts’ principal fundraising initiative which enables them to educate, empower and protect Aussie kids.

Another of our partners, NAPCAN, the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, has these suggestions for how you can play your part during National Child Protection Week.

Let’s all play our part to keep Aussie kids safe.

Posted by Ishtar Vij, Public Policy and Government Affairs, Google Australia

There has been a lot of attention around the Australian Government's mandatory ISP level filtering proposal. Google--and many of you--have argued that the proposal goes too far, with a broad-scoped filter, and a regime which takes the focus off more important areas such as online safety education and better support for policing efforts.

In December we expressed our concern with the Government's filtering proposal in this blog. Today we join the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), which represents 12 million library users around Australia, Yahoo! and the Inspire Foundation in proposing some core principles for a Safer Internet. We also expand on our views in a submission to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

Here are the highlights from our submission:

It would block some important content. The scope of content to be filtered ("Refused Classification" or "RC") is very wide. The report Untangling The Net: The Scope of Content Caught By Mandatory Internet Filtering has found that a wide scope of content could be prohibited including not just child pornography but also socially and politically controversial material. This raises genuine questions about restrictions on access to information, which is vital in a democracy.

It removes choices. The Government's proposal removes choices for parents as to what they and their children can access online. Moreover a filter may give a false sense of security and create a climate of complacency that someone else is managing your (or your children's) online experience.

It isn't effective in protecting kids. A large proportion of child sexual abuse content is not found on public websites, but in chat-rooms or peer-to-peer networks. The proposed filtering regime will not effectively protect children from this objectionable material.

Moreover, the filter appears to not work for high volume sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, as the impact of the filter on Internet access speeds would be too great.

YouTube is a platform for free expression. We have clear policies about what is allowed and not allowed on the site. For example, we do not permit hate speech or sexually explicit material, and all videos uploaded must comply with our Community Guidelines. Like all law-abiding companies, YouTube complies with the laws in the countries in which we operate. When we receive a valid legal request, like a court order, to remove content alleged to violate local laws, we first check that the request complies with the law, and we will seek to narrow it if the request is overly broad. Beyond these clearly defined parameters, we will not remove material from YouTube.

Our view is that online safety should focus on user education, individual user empowerment through technology tools (such as SafeSearch Lock, Safety Mode on YouTube), and cooperation between law enforcement and industry partners. We're partnering with some tremendous organisations in Australia towards this goal.

Posted by Iarla Flynn, Head of Policy, Google Australia

Safer Internet Day is a good time to reflect on the progress we've made in the last twelve months to help Australians enjoy a safer online experience.

The Internet is just like real life - we all need to know how to be street smart (or cybersmart!). We believe that online safety is all about user education, user empowerment through technology tools (such as SafeSearch Lock), and cooperation between law enforcement and industry partners.

As the debate around the Government's proposed mandatory ISP filtering regime continues, we believe that we should all retain focus on raising awareness of how to be cybersmart and safe online.

Over the past year, we have worked with Australian child safety and wellbeing organisations to educate people about cyber safety. For example:

• Australian Federal Police ThinkUKnow YouTube channel
• Bravehearts YouTube channel for White Balloon Day
• Smart Online, Safe Offline (SOSO) launch of an interactive cyberbullying campaign, called Cyber Bullying Affects Real Lives

We were also very proud to provide funding for five tremendous Australian child safety and wellbeing organisations: Kids Helpline, NAPCAN, Inspire Foundation, Bravehearts and The Alannah & Madeline Foundation. Here are some messages from our partners:

Wendy Protheroe, General Manager Counselling Services, Kids Helpline - a service of BoysTown:

"Kids deserve to be able to enjoy the benefits the internet can give them; they deserve to have a range of safety tools available and they deserve to know that the company whose services they are using is actively committed to their safety. Kids Helpline has found Google to be such a company. Google has provided in-kind support and a great donation that enabled Kids Helpline to provide online safety tips, resources and links to our counselling services."

Madelene McGrath, NAPCAN's SOSO Project Manager:

"Google and YouTube's support for this campaign was invaluable, and by working closely with YouTube to become part of the fabric of the site, we were able to engage far more effectively with our youth audience and deliver our message in a highly impactful way. Google and YouTube went well beyond being a media publisher and acted as a strategic partner throughout, ensuring the delivery of a highly successful campaign."

Kerry Graham, CEO, Inspire:

“Our partnership with Google is critical to our mission of helping millions of young people lead happier lives. With Google’s support we can reach and connect with young people at times and in places that traditional mental health services can’t. An example is a young person who found Inspire's Reach Out.com program through Google AdWords:
Just that it was there. It was 1:30am, I was desperate and had nowhere to turn. I somewhat sarcastically went to Google and typed in 'help'. This site was the first result. Thank you."

Hetty Johnston, Founder and Executive Director, Bravehearts:

“Google has been instrumental in enabling Bravehearts to reach out to the community and in particular, children and young people, with our educational messages and services to protect children. The effectiveness of the Bravehearts YouTube channel and Google Adwords as communication mediums is reflected in the growing demands on our services and the increased number of children, young people and adults that we are able to reach and help. We sincerely thank Google for helping us to empower children and adults everywhere to say no to child sexual assault."

Dr Judith Slocombe, CEO, The Alannah and Madeline Foundation:

“Google’s commitment makes a big difference: it sends a strong message to the whole community about the importance of being smart, safe and responsible when using technology. We are delighted with the support we have received from Google; it will help us deliver the Cybersafety and Wellbeing Initiative, a national framework guiding and supporting schools to implement relevant cybersafety and wellbeing policies and practices. A world-first approach to cybersafety, it provides a roadmap to the best available cybersafety resources for schools, kids and parents.”

This year, we look forward to continuing our work to help all Australians be cybersmart.

Posted by Ishtar Vij, Google Australia

Today is Safer Internet Day, a day to reflect on the fact that, just like in the physical world, in cyberspace we all need to look out for ourselves and use our common sense.

Today's theme is Think B4 U post. The fact is, some things are better left private... as fun and as easy as it is to post stuff about yourself, your friends, or your family online, you never know who will find it and when it will come back to haunt you.

Tips to Think B4 U post:

• Make sure there isn't anything in what you post that could help a stranger figure out who you are or where you live. Personal information like your telephone number or home address should NEVER be shared online with people you don't know.
• Don't post things that you wouldn't want other people to know - including a future employer.
• Don't post anything about a friend that you wouldn't say to his or her face. Treat others as you would like to be treated.
• Cybersmart.gov.au has some great information about taking care of your digital footprint - check it out here.
• Check out these clips on YouTube: Bulletin Board, What You Post Can Haunt You Forever

Happy surfing! And remember - Think B4 U post :-)

Posted by Ishtar Vij, Public Policy and Government Affairs