One of our threat intelligence researchers just published something that stopped me in my tracks.
It's not a technical analysis or a vulnerability report. It's a deeply personal reflection on what it means to protect children in a digital world that wasn't built with their safety in mind.
Written from a hospital room while holding his newborn son, it's both a father's worry and a security professional's warning about the threats specifically targeting kids online.
The Threats Targeting Children
Our threat intelligence team has been tracking a disturbing trend: phishing campaigns specifically engineered for children. These aren't generic scams but sophisticated social lures promising free currency for Roblox, Minecraft, or Pokemon Go.
When a twelve-year-old downloads these files and follows the links inside, the outcomes can be devastating. Password theft, screen-sharing software installation, webcam activation, or worse - extortion schemes where threat actors collect personal content and threaten to share it unless the child complies.
This is happening quietly in homes and school computer labs.
The Protection Gap
What makes this particularly troubling is how we've set up our children to fail. Most kids now have access to powerful, largely unmanaged devices. They use the same apps and platforms as adults, with virtually no differentiation in content, privacy protections, or threat modeling.
As our researcher puts it: "The tools kids use for homework, gaming, or chatting with friends are not neutral. They're attack surfaces."
Why This Matters
This op-ed challenges all of us, whether we're parents or not, to think beyond corporate threat models. As security professionals, we have unique insights into how these attacks work and evolve. That knowledge comes with responsibility.
The piece doesn't offer easy answers, but it asks the right questions: What does it mean to protect digital childhoods? How do we balance exploration with safety? And what role should security professionals play in this broader conversation?
What's your take? As security professionals or parents (or both), how do we navigate this challenge? Reply and let me know.