Domestic Workers’ Livestreams Expose Families to Cyberattacks and Blackmail
The experts stressed that the hacking of assistant workers' electronic devices inside homes threatens the privacy of families, exposing them to extortion, after obtaining accurate information about them or their own photos or otherwise, noting the need for workers to be aware of the dangers of unsafe use of their devices, taking photos inside the house, or making live broadcasts of them, especially if using family belongings such as clothing and other items, as well as warning them against downloading any suspicious applications, Or pressing anonymous links.
The homeowners explained that they worked to educate domestic workers about what is allowed and what is not, while using the Internet and smart devices inside their homes, to avoid any potential risks.
In turn, the Ministry of Human Resources and Empowerment stressed that with the increasing use of smart apps and access to social media platforms and other everyday uses of smartphones and tablets, "Family Cybersecurity" has become an important requirement, and a collective responsibility involving the family, including homeworkers, to protect the smart and digital home environment from any intrusion.
Specifically, two-year-old (or working mother) counsellor Marwa Hussain said: "As we become increasingly dependent on smart devices in our daily lives, I realized the importance of educating our helpers about the risks of the Internet, and how to use the devices safely, especially as our children spend a lot of time online, and I identified the powers of the devices, and explained to the worker the importance of not sharing Wi-Fi or photos or family details", explaining that cybersecurity is no longer a luxury. It's a need to protect the privacy and safety of our children.
For her part, a well-known Lena (a mother of three children) said: "As a working mother, I relied heavily on the assistant worker to care for my children, and I had to make sure she knew the principles of digital security. We've organized an awareness session for her on data privacy and children's online safety, and we've set a clear policy for the use of devices", he said, noting that this kind of awareness reflects positively on home security and reduces any potential digital threats.
Hala Mustafa said: "I am the mother of three teenage sons, and whenever we hear about breaking and entering or filming without the parents' knowledge, it makes me more determined about the devices inside the house. So I explained to the assistant what's allowed and what's not, especially when it comes to photographing children or interacting with devices, like smart cameras. It's the right of workers to understand the risks, and it's our right to protect our homes".
In turn, Assistant Representative of the Ministry of Human Resources and Empowerment for the Support Services Sector, Mohammad Saqqara al-Naimi, said that with the increasing use of smart apps and access to social media platforms and other everyday uses of smartphones and tablets by individuals, what can be described as "family cybersecurity" has become an important demand, and collective responsibility includes all family members, including assisted household workers. They are dealing with home Wi-Fi networks on a daily basis, with the goal of protecting their smart and digital home environment from any breach that could have serious consequences for the family.
In an article in the latest issue of the Journal of the Labour Market, Al-Naimi added that the wrong handling of smart devices and Internet applications by any family member, such as clicking on suspicious links or downloading untrusted apps, or sharing passwords with third parties, these actions – although seemingly simple – carry many risks, including opening the door to cyberattacks targeting family data, or disrupting smart home systems. The possibility of hackers accessing the home network, controlling surveillance cameras, even smart gaming cameras and so on, putting family privacy and blackmail at risk.
"From here, families must take a proactive approach to educating workers about the fundamentals of secure digital behaviour, by providing simplified training to assist workers on how to identify common cyber threats, activate network protection tools, customize their own network on home Wi-Fi such as guest-wifi, and leverage parental control tools or hardware management software. To determine what can be accessed from content or applications, with periodic reviews of technical usage behaviors".
He stressed that after taking pictures of valuable objects in the home with admiration, posting them on social media, or leaving them in the individual's profile, to show them to their friends without awareness and knowing the intentions of strangers and their backgrounds, he stressed that protecting the family from cyberattacks can only be achieved through a collective awareness that includes everyone inside the home, no matter what their role. Everyone who deals with technology within the home environment must be part of a digital protection system, to ensure a secure and stable digital environment that protects household privacy, and prevents any potential breaches.
For his part, cybersecurity expert Sami A Nour said: "Housekeeping plays an important role in maintaining digital barriers to homes, on one side we have some controls to protect against intrusion and technical aspects fall under it, and on the other side privacy is a procedural or administrative aspect as some call it, while fraud requires technical and procedural efforts".
He told "Emarat Al Youm": "On the technical side, it's about protecting assistive workers, because most of them don't know how protection works, and they have to be educated on the most important foundations of digital security, and that's with a humanitarian goal first so they don't lose their money or risk their personal lives, and many workers have lost their money, or have been subjected to cross-continental blackmail attacks. When blackmail occurs, the demands from the blackmailer may not only be limited to the employee, but extend to the family as well, where the blackmailer asks the employee to photograph household members without their knowledge".
He pointed out that there are setups and scams targeting low-income people like domestic workers, accusing them of investing in stocks, for example, for only 40 dirhams, where they should be educated to protect them with humanitarian purpose, so that it does not cause any problems for the homeowner.
He added: "The hacking of the workers' devices, which could transmit damage to the rest of the devices inside the house, could put the devices of family members at risk, even if the devices of family members are not hacked, it is easy for a hacker or (hacker) to spy on them through the workers' devices, especially since they have access to all the rooms in the house, and then blackmail and bargaining operations begin".
Sami went on to say, "As for the breach of privacy, we find that a lot of workers share photos all the time, and often the workers may use home facilities to take pictures, violate prohibitions, and sometimes even some workers may use homeowner's clothes to take pictures, and use personal spaces to take pictures like offices and others, as many of them share their diaries, and sometimes they may even launch a broadcast on Instagram and TikTok. With the goal of getting money or admiration or building relationships".
He went on: "Here is where human intervention, employee education, community habits and traditions, the limits of participatory literacy, and the best use of technology are needed".
And he made it clear that there's a point we all overlook, which is that when workers are conscious, they'll play a role in protecting the child without adjectives, because they're more of a child's companion these days than busy parents.
He stressed that the first and best solution is awareness-raising, understanding and dialogue, but as far as the technical aspects are concerned, it is necessary to set the hours of use and the applications allowed to access them, prevent suspicious applications that may violate privacy, and set up protective software at the level of devices and also at the network level so that no harm can spread from one device to another. In the event of unacceptable behaviour, access to software should be completely prohibited, except for software that employees use to communicate with their families outside the state, or provide a device to the worker with only a front-facing camera, which is an option only when there are abuses or violations.
Here we need a legal study on the limits of the powers of the employer's guardian under parental control, as a family member, and we need the relevant authorities to provide the necessary educational content in all languages to the employee, and that knowledge of it is a prerequisite for passing the work and household service requirements.
Lords of the family:
• Emphasize that employees do not share Wi-Fi, photos or family details, and specify specific privileges for using smart devices.
Source: Emarat Al Youm