Trick or Treat? Norton helps parents to keep online horrors at bay

With costumes flying off the shelves and DYI dress-up in full swing for all things spooky tomorrow, Norton by Symantec looks at why unknowing parents need to watch out when putting together last minute costumes and decorations with search terms around ‘Hallow’s Eve’ returning a large number of nasty, poisoned links.

With a bundle of options online, parents looking for last-minute additions and costume accessories may come across malicious web links that have been identified by Norton by Symantec – including “Printable Halloween Mask”, “Printable Mask Cat”, “Printable Frankenstein Mask” and “Printable Skeleton Template”. These poisoned search results have been planted by cyber-bogeymen to attract people to unofficial or infected websites hosting malware, often designed to steal identities and sensitive personal information.

Furthermore, some of the most common scams that trick children are pop-up ads that:

Promise you can easily win great prizes like a tablet or gaming system

Claim to detect viruses on your computer and offer to clean them

Offer to speed up your computer

This Halloween, parents can set their kids on the right, well-lit path when it comes to Internet safety. Top tips? When your child goes trick-or-treating you have rules like staying on the sidewalk, crossing the street carefully, carrying a flashlight or wearing light colored clothes, avoiding unwrapped or homemade treats and coming home before it’s too late. The Internet equivalents are:

Be careful what you click on, stick to well-known Internet sites and use search ratings tools like Norton Safe Web to avoid going to dangerous websites.

Teach your child never to respond to spam and to delete unwanted messages.

Use security software on all computers and, increasingly, on mobile devices like cell phones and tablets.

Set up passwords that are unique and complex and make sure your children share them with you but no one else.

Talk to your child about Internet scams, misleading advertising and other online tricks you know to avoid but they may not.