The IT Security Attaché

Good day to you,

With technology becoming a more integral part of our everyday lives and more gadgets, devices, and electronics being converged on the information superhighway (World Wide Web ), at what age do you believe we should start the education and awareness of IT/Internet Security for our youths in the school systems?

Things like,

How to browse/use the internet safely,
Instant Messaging security and best practices
Social Networking security and best practices
Mobile security and best practices.
Online predators and how they target children and how to be protected from them.
What is are viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, malware, blended threats?
What are web attacks (like drive-by-downloads) and how they are orchestrated?
What is social engineering?
What is phishing?
What is SPAM and why is it being used today?
How do these threats proliferate?
Secure messaging implementation and use.
Defense-in-depth – definition, purpose and maintenance. Anti-virus, anti-malware, firewalls and intrusion detection/prevention.

Our Secure Minds Initiative is about integrating this level of training and education in the school’s curriculum and I wanted to get your thoughts as adults, parents, educators and professionals on this matter. I have seen 10-12yrs old who can hack into a network and do some serious things that IT Pros in their adult years can’t.

Why not nurture this knowledge and ability for good?

Please make note that I didn’t ask if it should, I asked at what age should this be done signifying that I believe it should and i’m for it. Imagine having our youths graduating from high/middle schools with this advance early knowledge and what contributions they would be to the IT field. Even if they don’t become IT professionals having this education and knowledge will help any organization they join stay more secure.

Your thoughts.

Thank you and have a great day,

~Brett A. Scudder~

More answers on LinkedIn here http://www.linkedin.com/answers/using-linkedIn/ULI/394739-3071950

Good day to you,

When I see an article like this I tend to sit back and go wow, where have I been living and what have I been seeing/hearing or, am I in denial to the truth. I have always said that we, the people in the field who live and die working in the field, have always seen thing different from the people in these high level positions and is why they fail to implement the proper things needed because there is in synergy between us and them.

It’s like a cop on the street who has to deal with the everyday violence and issues but he’s able to quell them and bring peace in his areas because he’s know and knows how to deal with people. While these issues are real and happening everyday they don’t get reported back to the precinct and so the captain (or seniors) thinks all is well and can say that there district is not violent nor has issues like anywhere else. It’s not that you don’t have issues, you’re just not getting the info about them because they are not critical enough to report in or cause a major stir. Yet, unchecked, the high profile ones are added to the statistics and generate facts.

They don’t come down to our neck of the woods and talk with us to see what is “really going on” in the world, instead, they use statistics that is published by some agency or group. Well, I must be in denial because I truly see this as a growing problem and have talked with parent/student alike who have been victimized online to the point that it affects their offline experience/life.

So, before I get carried away in myself and this issue (as it really upsets me), i’d like to throw this out to this professional’s network to get your real professional insight/thoughts on the report of the report.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/technology/internet/14cyberweb.html

Thank you and have a great day,

~Brett A. Scudder~

More answers on LinkedIn here http://www.linkedin.com/answers/using-linkedIn/ULI/398900-3071950