Cyber Protecting Our Most Critical Assets: The Kids Of America

 

This blog today is one that I am very passionate about.  It has to do with how Cyber protect the most innocent of citizens in our society – our children.  They are undoubtedly the hope for our future in the crazy world we live in today.  Today unfortunately, kids have access to just about everything online, even despite all of the parental controls being put into place.

Because of the high degree of vulnerability that they possess, the Cyberattacker is purposely targeting these youngsters (and it is out of sheer disgust that I have to make that statement).  But it’s not just the innocent children that are being preyed upon; it is also the educational systems that they attend.  Just consider some of these statistics:

*From the time period of 2016-2022, there were more than 1,600 Cyberattacks in our public school system.  More information about this can be seen at the link below:

https://www.k12six.org/map

*Because of all of these Cyberattacks, certain schools in the states of Minnesota, New Hampshire, and North Carolina have had to close down permanently.

Although I might be getting a little political here, the Biden Administration has done far more than what the previous Administration has done in this regard.  But, given the climate that exists right now in DC, trying to get anything passed through Congress  in terms of creating new legislation is taking forever.  But in the meantime, the private sector in Corporate America has to take a much bigger role.

Here three proposed steps  that can be taken:

1)     Teach the teacher:

In this blog, the age group that I am referring to are the K-6 years.  Here teachers not only have a horrendous amount of responsibility to their students, but they have to make sure that the kids remain safe as much as possible while they are in school.  And yes, this even includes what is known as  “Cyberbullying”.  But how can the teachers try to protect the kids in this aspect if they have no experience in it themselves?  They key here is that they need to be educated in this also.  I firmly believe that the CISOS in Corporate America need to really step up to the plate and offer Cyber training to these teachers.  My belief here is forget how much money you are going to charge, but rather do it on a pro bono basis out of the goodness of your heart.

2)     Integrate into the curriculum:

Once the teachers have been taught some of the basics of Cybersecurity, then the governing body of the school districts should then mandate that the same needs to be taught to the kids.  I fully realize that this could be a very difficult task to do, as the attention span of kids is very short.  They are not going to care about Encryption, Cryptography, or anything like that.  Rather, you need to make it into a game that they can easily understand and play with for some time.  There are actually free resources out there that teachers can use, and probably one of the best ones to use is:

https://cyber.org/standards

 

Here is also another great resource from CISA:

https://www.cisa.gov/protecting-our-future-cybersecurity-k-12

3)     More partnerships with the higher education sector:

With this, I am talking that the K-6 school districts should try to form up partnerships with the colleges and universities that are currently offering Cybersecurity degrees, or those that have invested a good chunk of $$$ into research.  Likewise, the colleges and the universities should do the same.  In the end, this is a win-win benefit to all.  The K-6 schools will be able to gain access to first class Cyber assets at a fraction of the cost it would take to get it from the private sector. Also, the colleges and the universities can in turn offer summer camps to these kids so that they can be kept busy and their minds stimulated.  Who knows, maybe the seeds will be planted into them to perhaps explore Cyber as a possible career option?

My Thoughts On This:

The problem of the lack of Cybersecurity in K-6 stems form differing areas, but here are the common ones:

*Lack of funding:  Schools desperately need money, so hopefully the Biden Administration can do more to speed up the process.  Perhaps even sign an Executive Order?

*The lack of skilled workers.  This once again goes back to the issue of the idiotic and stupid hiring managers only wanting a certain skillset.  But get over this.  You can also train somebody if they have some baseline knowledge, are motivated, and most importantly, are willing to learn.  But the schools need to pick up hiring in this aspect as well.  But once again, money is very tight.  Perhaps even hiring contractors could be a solution as well.

*As stated before, Corporate has to do a lot more.  Forget about the bottom line on this one, CISOS.  Whatever happened to the part of your civic responsibility???  Businesses have to do more to help the K-6 school districts, even if it is on a pro bono basis.

As for what I am doing, I have launched a new company that will be offering Cyber teaching to colleges, and yes, even the K-6 schools as well.  I really don’t care about the money in this situation.  What matters to me the most is that I can give back what has been given to me.  If I can help protect just one kid from Cyberbullying or a Cyberattack, I will feel my mission has been partially accomplished.