Teaching Children Cyber Security and Ethics

The above titled article, written by White, and published by the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (July, 2005) points out that there are a number of organizations that are working on educating the public in Cyber Awareness. The term "Cyber Awareness" includes Cyber Security, Ethics and Safety. A number of problems need to be dealt with, however, for these efforts to be useful. There is no centralized organization providing standardized information, or standards for teaching this information, most notably to K-12 school children. The funding that these organizations receive is spent in parallel projects, working toward the same goals. The funding needs to be centralized, and the efforts of these groups brought together to more effectively and efficiently achieve the common goal. It is suggested that a national Cyber Awareness Program (CAP) be developed, that a few branded websites be used to provide the CAP information, that high grade multimedia be made to teach Cyber Awareness, that both private and public funding be combined to achieve the CAP goals, and that the National Cyber Security Alliance be the organization to perform these tasks.

I was relieved to read this article, as I can see the need for simplifying access to important Cyber Security/Safety/Ethics information. The schools that I have been recently associated with have no Cyber Awareness education going on at all. The development of CAP standards and curriculum is desperately needed, and will, I beliece, be greatfully received by K-12 schools.