A program to educate children about the consequences of DDoS attacks is being implemented by the U.K.'s National Crime Agency's (NCA) cybercrime unit after students as young as nine are found guilty of launching DDoS attacks against their school.
DDoS Attacks
Earlier this week, the United Kingdom's National Crime Agency, or NCA, published an alarming post regarding cybercrime attacks.
NCA reveals that their National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) saw a 107% increase from 2019 to 2020 in the number of reports of students, as young as nine, having deployed DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks against school networks.
NCCU's Prevent team receives referrals from secondary school students, with 15 years old as the median age and the youngest at nine.
The report also notes that the number of such attacks has risen sharply during the pandemic and is a clear move to disrupt online learning activities.
In response, the cybercrime unit of the U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) is developing a program to inform children about the consequences of DDoS attacks.
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How are DDoS Attacks Prevented?
Searches made by young students on school computers are tracked and matched to cybercrime searches. This is so they can identify potential offenders.
Consequently, these students are presented with alerts warning against crime and directed to the Cyber Choices website.
But in this case, Cyber Choices will host educational campaigns so these types of cybercrime would subdue in scholastic learning zones.
An initial trial for this type of intervention has been underway for at least a few months. Early results suggest that it can significantly reduce DDoS-related searches in schools.
In the wake of this success, the project will now roll out to 2,000 primary and secondary schools before extending to a wide range of institutions across the U.K.
"Education is a key pillar in preventing crime and these messages highlight the risks and consequences of committing cyber offenses, which can result in a criminal record," said John Denley, Deputy Director of the NCA's cybercrime unit
Denley also mentioned that law enforcement has a critical role in finding and preventing cybercrime.
School outreach programs like this have one major goal. That is to teach youngsters about the Computer Misuse Act and the consequences of cybercrime in order to keep them away from cybercriminal activity.
A similar message was expressed by U.K. security minister Damian Hinds, who noted that the government's new cyber strategy focuses primarily on tackling cybercrime.
"It's great to see cooperation between law enforcement and the private sector in delivering important initiatives like this one to prevent students from getting involved in cybercrime," Hinds noted.
Moreover, Talk Straight CEO David Tindall said that they would collaborate with the National Crime Agency to help make the Internet safer.
Tindall concludes that education about cybercrime will tackle potential criminal activity proactively rather than responding to it after the damage has been done.
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Written by Thea Felicity
