Cybersecurity and disinformation is top of mind, especially in today’s time. With the increase in digitalisation, it’s important to educate everyone, particularly tomorrow’s budding youth. With this thought in mind, Bits N’ Bytes Cybersecurity Education Corp team landed in India and conducted educational workshops in schools in Chennai and Tuticorin, receiving immense community support and positive response.
BNBCE is a 501(c)(3) organisation that provides cybersecurity awareness and education to vulnerable populations. Over the past six years of operations, they have hosted 60+ workshops across the US, Singapore, and the Philippines, and have recently extended this programming to India. They have created three open-sourced, free curricula packages, as well as a national women’s cybersecurity fellowship program.
Two of Bits N’ Bytes’ curricula packages are:
Cyber Sleuths: Developed in partnership with ISACA’s One in Tech.
Disinformation, Cyber, and Democracy: Developed in partnership with GirlSecurity. This is a training for teachers to learn how to talk about disinformation and fake news in their classroom. Teachers can use the slides for students studying computer science, journalism, policy, or government.
You can join their online security courses for free by registering with your email. The courses are interactive, with drag-and-drop activities, take-home worksheets, and animated videos. It requires time and effort to understand the concepts, but in the end, you can become a security superhero to protect yourself and your loved ones from cybercrime.
Kyla and her BNBCE team conducted offline workshops at different schools in Chennai and Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, India. Bharathiar School, Tuticorin, India; RKM Sarada Vidyalaya, Chennai, India & Alphabet International School on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of January 2023 respectively. They were joined by members of the Crime Bureau and other Non- Profit Organisations operating in those regions. A total of more than 150 students belonging to middle and high school joined, and benefited from these workshops.
At the workshop, the students were taught about the basics of cybersecurity, such as social engineering, phishing, and how to identify, detect, and avoid fraudulent messages. The course material provided was a 37-page handbook with various exercises covering topics across social engineering, password creation, encryption, and OTP protection.
“We are beyond excited to have extended our programming to classrooms in India. We have been conducting cybersecurity awareness workshops for quite a while now, and we had so much fun working with students across classrooms here. It was an amazing experience, and we look forward to conducting more such workshops and mentoring more students in the future,” said BNBCE’s CEO & Founder, Kyla Guru.
As a part of the workshop, the students were also given a step-by-step guide to help them create a secure online presence. They were informed about the importance of keeping their software up to date, and the potential dangers of not doing so.
At the end of the workshop, the students were given “White Hats,” representing that they are each now ‘white-hat hackers,’ as well as Security Superhero shirts and camera covers. The team conducted a question-and-answer session to gauge the student’s understanding of the course materials.
BNBCE plans to conduct more such offline workshops in the near future, to create awareness about the importance of cybersecurity and educate people on the various types of cyber threats they may face.
For more information about Bits N’ Bytes Cybersecurity Education, please visit www.bitsnbytes.us.com and follow @GuruDetective on Twitter. For inquiries, contact kyla@bitsnbytes.us.com.
