by Dave Moore, CISSP
08/06/2023
Want to learn how to be safe on the Internet? Have I got a deal for you: come to the Norman Public Library Central Location September 20, 2023, at 6:30pm and take my one-night class, “Fight The Internet Bad Guys & Win!” Free and open to all ages, visit pioneer.libnet.info/event/8770968 or call 405-701-2600 to register and learn more.
Internet safety education for the general public is virtually non-existent. Sure, there are some random things for certain school districts, and for government/corporate employees, but for most folks: nothing. Why is no one reaching out to the people who are being actively exploited today, losing countless dollars to Internet criminals?
Adults. Every-day adults. Mom and Pop computer users. Parents, mothers and fathers. The “aging” population. Minority populations. Small and medium-sized business owners and employees. These are the people who are being actively exploited now, losing mountains of money today.
The answer is education and training, effectual education done in a way that anyone can understand. Organizations like mine, The Internet Safety Group, and other cybersecurity companies and professionals, are uniquely qualified to fulfill the mission of creating an Internet safety-aware culture.
Why, though, is it not already happening? For the most part, it’s because people don’t take the issue seriously. “No pain, no problem,” is how it goes for most folks. Fixing the problem will require serious, deliberate buy-in from major companies, corporations and governments. They need to own the problem, and make a commitment to their customers, families and citizens. They must accept the social responsibility to help fix the giant cybersecurity mess we are all in. They need to start reaching out to the public-at large in order to achieve lasting change.
The teaching methods and frameworks for Internet safety community training already exist, they just need to be used, and doing all that costs money. I’m not trying to brag, but I’ve been developing and providing Internet safety community training, with fantastic proven success, for 18 years. What I’m getting at, here, is that it’s doable. There should be a thousand folks like me doing this across the country, making a difference. There should be at least 50 of me right here in Oklahoma.
During Covid, I was asked to speak at a local business association meeting, where there were about 40 or 50 prominent business leaders present, CEO’s, presidents, doctors, lawyers, and we had a discussion about risk.
I explained to them about what we in the cybersecurity world call your “risk appetite,” essentially, how much risk are you willing to take on before an epic fails occurs. At the end of the discussion, I asked a question: “How many of you here use online banking?” Every hand in the room goes up, all of them.
Then I asked, “How many people here have had any Internet safety and online security training?” The room gets real quiet. Finally, one hand goes up. One. These were folks controlling millions of dollars in our economy, controlling thousands of jobs, and only one person out of the entire group of big-shot business folks had ever had any Internet safety training.
Clearly, our current way of doing things is unsustainable. Let’s all get together and get a grip in this, before it tightens its grip on us.
Dave Moore, CISSP, has been fixing computers in Oklahoma since 1984. Founder of the non-profit Internet Safety Group Ltd, he also teaches Internet safety community training workshops. He can be reached at 405-919-9901 or www.internetsafetygroup.org