Back-to-school cybersecurity checklist for parents and students

Back-to-school season is here again.

New school year, new routines, new devices and plenty to organize. While you're working through the usual back-to-school list, it's a good time to check how your family is protecting its accounts, devices, money and personal information online.

Key takeaways

• Back-to-school scams can hide in everyday activities. Think shopping deals, delivery messages, school emails, rentals, jobs and student discounts.
• Slow down whenever money or personal information is involved. Urgency and unusually good deals are common scam warning signs.
• Protect the basics. Unique passwords, 2FA, updates and private social media accounts go a long way.
• Older students face different risks. Rental, textbook, scholarship and job scams become more important as teenagers gain independence.
• Make asking for help normal. Kids should know they can show a parent or trusted adult a suspicious message without getting into trouble.

Along with buying clothes, notebooks, and school supplies, parents may be shopping for a new laptop, setting up school accounts, and downloading apps. Older students might be hunting for cheaper textbooks, a room to rent or a part-time job.

All of that creates opportunities for scammers. A bargain laptop could be advertised by a fake shop. A student could receive a phishing email telling them their school account is about to expire. A great-looking apartment near campus might not actually be for rent.

Before the school year gets into full swing, it's worth spending a few minutes checking the devices and accounts your family relies on and talking about the scams and privacy risks your kids may come across.

Here's a practical back-to-school cybersecurity checklist you can go through together:

1. Shop carefully for back-to-school deals

Back-to-school shopping can get expensive, especially when laptops, tablets, phones or other electronics are on the list. Looking for a bargain makes sense, but be careful with unusually large discounts advertised through social media, email, search results or unfamiliar online stores.

If a laptop that normally costs $800 suddenly appears for $250, check the seller before reaching for your card. Compare prices with established retailers, look at independent reviews, and inspect the website address. Be wary of countdown timers, claims that only a few items remain, and sellers asking for gift cards, cryptocurrency or other unusual payment methods.

Shopping season can also mean more delivery scams. If you receive a text claiming that a package couldn't be delivered or that you need to pay a small redelivery fee, check the order through the retailer or courier's official website or app instead of using the link in the message.

2. Get school devices and accounts ready

Before classes start, update the phones, tablets and laptops your children will use and enable automatic updates where possible. It's also a good time to remove apps they no longer need and check that important accounts have strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA).

Pay particular attention to email accounts because they are often used to reset passwords for other services. Kids should also know never to share login or verification codes with anyone, including someone who claims a code was accidentally sent to their phone.

3. Do a quick privacy check

Back-to-school is also a good time to see how much information your family is sharing online. A first-day-of-school photo, for example, could reveal a child's school, age, teacher or location, while their social media profile might show their birthday, sports team or daily routine.

Go through privacy settings together, review followers, switch off unnecessary location sharing, and check which apps have access to the camera, microphone, contacts, and photos. Encourage kids to think about whether a person, app, or website actually needs the information it's asking for before they share it.

4. Talk about the scams kids actually see

Phishing isn't limited to suspicious emails about bank accounts. For kids and teenagers, it can be a message asking, “Is this you in this photo?”, an offer of free in-game currency, a fake prize, or a warning that their school or social media account is about to be deleted.

The subject may change, but these messages tend to create enough excitement, worry or curiosity to get someone to click a link or hand over a password, verification code, payment or personal information.

Talk through a few examples with your kids and encourage them to check with you when they're unsure. A message isn't necessarily safe just because it comes from someone they know either. A friend's social media or gaming account could have been compromised and used to send scams to their contacts.

5. Older students have a few more scams to watch for

Teenagers and college students may be making bigger financial decisions on their own, particularly if they're moving away from home. Rentals, textbooks, scholarships, and part-time jobs can all involve scams.

For accommodation, verify the property and the person renting it before paying a deposit, especially if they won't arrange a viewing or claim to be out of the country. When buying second-hand textbooks, stick to reputable marketplaces and their payment systems, and be careful with supposedly free textbook downloads from unfamiliar websites.

Job and scholarship offers deserve the same scrutiny. A legitimate employer shouldn't ask you to pay a fee, buy gift cards or transfer money to get a job, and a scholarship provider shouldn't demand payment to release an award.

A room that's far cheaper than everything else nearby, an unusually well-paid job that requires no experience or a guaranteed scholarship are all worth checking before sending money or personal information.

6. Make it easy for kids to tell you when something goes wrong

One of the most important conversations you can have before school starts is also one of the simplest: If something goes wrong online, tell me.

Kids sometimes hide mistakes because they're afraid of getting in trouble or losing access to their phone, social media or games. If they've clicked a phishing link, shared a password, bought something from a fake store, or are being threatened online, however, finding out quickly gives you a better chance of helping.

Make suspicious messages something you can look at together rather than something they need to deal with alone.

Your 10-minute back-to-school cybersecurity checklist

Before school starts:

• Update phones, tablets and laptops.
• Replace weak or reused passwords.
• Enable 2FA on important accounts.
• Review social media privacy and location sharing.
• Check app permissions.
• Talk about phishing and verification-code scams.
• Be cautious with unfamiliar back-to-school stores and huge discounts.
• Show older students examples of rental, job and scholarship scams.
• Remind kids not to post student IDs or sensitive school information.
• Agree that suspicious messages, purchases or requests can always be brought to you.

Free tools to keep on hand this school year

You won't always know whether a message, website or phone call is legitimate. Sometimes getting a second opinion is the easiest thing to do.

Bitdefender Scamio is our free AI-powered scam detector you can use to check suspicious texts, emails, links and QR codes. So, if your teenager gets an amazing job offer over WhatsApp, or you're not sure about a message asking you to pay for a delivery, you can send it to Scamio for a quick check.

Bitdefender Link Checker is useful when the question is simply, “Should I click this?” Paste in a URL from a back-to-school sale, rental listing, student offer, or unsolicited message, and it will check it for phishing, malware, and fraudulent websites.

Bitdefender Reverse Phone Lookup can also come in handy when you or your kids receive calls from unfamiliar numbers.

One plan for the family's everyday online life

If you want protection that doesn't depend on someone remembering to check every suspicious link or message, a Bitdefender Family Plan has you covered.

That means protection can follow the family through the things everyone already does online: kids browsing and doing homework, teenagers downloading apps and using their own devices, and parents shopping, checking email or managing family accounts.

Parents also get Parental Control, with tools for managing internet time, filtering content and setting routines, while family members can have roles appropriate to their age rather than everyone sharing one account.

It's a practical way to keep the family's devices and online activities protected under the same plan, during back-to-school season and for the rest of the year.