Technology meant to make life easier can become a weapon

our work

national cyber security awareness taskforce

 

a series of billboards could be seen around Cork City as part of the Red Flags are Abuse campaign Oct 2022

National Campaign to raise Awareness of Technology Facilitated Abuse

Learn the Red Flags of Technology Facilitated Abuse

The #RedFlagsAreAbuse billboard campaign which runs from September 25th to October 8th, 2022, is designed to create awareness of noxious digital behaviour which are red flags for technology-facilitated abuse. The campaign focuses on three problematic red-flag behaviours:

  • More commonly known as ‘blowing up your phone’ to keep tabs on you with an expectation of immediate or prompt reply.

  • Constant demands to share your location or remote tracking of your movements.

  • Restricting your access to online money or making you unduly accountable for essential purchases.

Technologies and platforms that make our lives easier are increasingly being used by more and more people every day. Perpetrators of abuse have quickly learned to adopt these technologies to exert coercion and control over their partners which may be done directly and/or through their children.

The novel nature of technology means that norms around use are not yet culturally established and abusive behaviour may not be easily recognised or may be seen as acceptable. Technology-assisted abuse follows the norms of other forms of abuse and victims are often disbelieved or dismissed, or behaviour is often falsely blamed on poor personal choice.

Technology-facilitated abuse is the use of technology to control, threaten, monitor or harass someone. Some examples of this type of abuse includes:

  • Using technology to track your whereabouts

  • Using tracking devices to monitor your locations and activities

  • Sending excessive amounts of voice calls, emails and texts

  • Denying access to technology to isolate you

  • Sending abusive messages online to threaten you and/or your family/friends

  • Sharing intimate and private pictures or messages online

  • Harassing you by sending insulting or threatening texts or messages

  • Making fake profiles to harass you

  • Monitoring all your online activity

  • Checking your search history

  • Demanding you give them your passwords to your online accounts

  • Restricting access to your finances using technology

  • Accessing your personal accounts without your knowledge or consent

National Curator of

STOP THINK CONNECT

We are honored to be joined by CAI in the establishment of the campaign in Ireland - and in working with Joanne O’Connor and Louise O’Hagan in the development of a very important resource I hope will be emulated in other nations: a cybersecurity awareness research center that addresses human factors at population-level scales.
— -Peter Cassidy, Co-founder and CEO of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Messaging Convention.

Our Mission.

raising awareness, influencing behaviour and improving culture.

Our Task Force is committed to bringing security professionals together to discuss the driving forces which reduce human cyber risk in a world of borderless security.

Increase it.

  1. Increase Cyber Security Awareness on a national level by creating content under creative commons license for reuse.

  2. Collaborate with national bodies and institutions to develop targeted content for high risk areas and sectors.

Research it.

  1. Research areas of National Cyber Security Awareness.

  2. Research public awareness of cyber security risk.

Promote it.

  1. Promote the Cyber Security Awareness as a profession.

  2. Promote Ireland as a COE of Awareness & Training

Strategy - Increase cybersecurity awareness and education among Irish population.

Vision - Secure society using an interdisciplinary approach -  have a baseline of Cybersecurity Awareness from the population of Ireland and build on it each year. We are committed to improving the digital safety and security of society and economy.