17 Sep Cybersecurity Resources for Parents
Keeping your family’s accounts and information secure is more important than ever. School communications, parent portals, payment systems, and student apps can all be targets for phishing and other online scams.
Below are several trusted resources to help parents recognize suspicious messages, protect their accounts, and know what to do if something goes wrong.
Protecting Your Accounts
School cybersecurity guides from sources including South Otago High School, APS Educational Technology, and Plainfield Schools offer practical advice specifically for families navigating school communications and technology.
What they cover:
- Recognizing phishing: Learn how scammers may impersonate school administrators, teachers, or billing departments with urgent requests, fake fee notices, or links to fraudulent parent portals.
- Checking for data breaches: Use Have I Been Pwned to check whether your email address has appeared in a known data breach.
- Strengthening your accounts: Consider using a password manager, such as Bitwarden or 1Password, and enable two-factor authentication (2FA) whenever possible.
- If your account is compromised: Change your passwords using a secure device, enable 2FA, and notify the school’s technology department if a school-related account or portal may have been affected.
Recognizing Back-to-School Scams
Bitdefender: Back-to-School Scams: Is That Message Legitimate?
Scammers often take advantage of the trust parents place in school communications. This guide focuses on fraudulent messages involving schools, teachers, fundraisers, payments, and parent portals.
Look out for:
- Urgent requests for payment or personal information
- Links that appear to lead to an official school portal
- Unexpected QR codes
- Messages asking you to act immediately
If you’re still unsure about a link or message, Bitdefender Scamio can help you check suspicious emails, texts, links, and QR codes before you act, while Bitdefender Link Checker lets you check whether a URL is safe before opening it.
A good rule of thumb: If a message asks you to log in, make a payment, or provide sensitive information, go directly to the school’s official website or app rather than clicking a link in the message.
Already clicked a suspicious link? Change your password immediately, update any other accounts where you reused that password, enable multi-factor authentication, and contact your bank if you entered payment information.
What to Do If You Think Your Account Has Been Hacked
The White Hatter: When an Account Is Compromised: A First-Response Guide for Parents and Caregivers
Your personal email account can serve as a gateway to many other accounts, including school portals, financial accounts, and family devices. The White Hatter provides a step-by-step guide for responding if you suspect an account has been compromised.
If you notice something suspicious:
- Pause and document it. Screenshot suspicious login alerts, password-reset messages, or other unusual activity.
- Check recent activity. Review your email account’s Active Sessions, Recent Activity, or similar security settings for unfamiliar devices or locations.
- Sign out everywhere. Use your email provider’s option to sign out of other sessions or devices.
- Secure your email first. Change your primary email password using a secure, uncompromised device.
- Protect other accounts. Update passwords for important accounts, particularly if you reused your email password elsewhere.
- Protect your finances. Contact your bank if payment or financial information may have been exposed.
Quick Cybersecurity Checklist
Before clicking:
- Is the message creating a sense of urgency?
- Is the sender’s email address what you would normally expect?
- Does the link actually lead to the school’s official website?
- Is the message unexpectedly asking for money, passwords, or personal information?
If you are unsure:
- Don’t click the link or scan the QR code.
- Open the school’s official website or app directly.
- Contact the school using a phone number or email address you already know.
If your account has been compromised:
- Change your email password immediately.
- Change any reused passwords.
- Sign out of other sessions and devices.
- Turn on two-factor authentication.
- Check your recent account activity.
- Notify the school if a school account or portal may have been affected.
- Contact your bank if financial information was entered.
- Check Have I Been Pwned to see whether your email address has appeared in a known data breach.
Please contact help@bcha-ct.org should you have any questions or issues.