k-12

With less than three days left until National Cyber Security Awareness Month begins, have you decided how you're going to get involved? Visit our Get Involved! page for dozens of ideas on how you can be part of Our Shared Responsibility.

The NCSA is pleased to present a guest blog written by AT&T's Chris Boyer of AT&T, who also serves as the NCSA Board Treasurer.

"One of the opportunities I have had in the past couple of years is to represent AT&T in the development of the recently launched STOP. THINK. CONNECT. cyber security awareness campaign.  STOP. THINK. CONNECT. is intended to do for cyber security what Smokey the Bear did for forest fire prevention or "Click it or Ticket" did for seatbelts.  The theme of the campaign is pretty simple - if we apply the same common sense we apply in the physical world in the virtual world we would all be safer online. 

If you didn’t know, it’s Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek)  from December 5-11. The goal of this awareness week is to: 

• Eliminate misperceptions about computer science
• Communicate the endless opportunities for which computer science education prepares students in K-12, higher education and careers
• Provide information and activities for students, educators, parents, and corporations to advocate for computer science education at all levels

According to Computing in the Core one of the sponsors of the week

Critical to our success in protecting our digital assets is ensuring that young people consider and seek careers in cybersecurity. We need to build out our math and science curriculum in the K-12 years to ensure that high school graduates have the basic knowledge to build in college.

Today, the National Cyber Security Alliance released the 2010 State of Cyberethics, Cybersafety, and Cybersecurity Curriculum in the U.S.  which explores teacher, school administrator, and school technology coordinator attitudes toward teaching cyber education topics, what is actually being taught in classrooms, and the level of professional development teachers are receiving in order to teach these topics.

The RSA Conference (RSA the security division of EMC, an NCSA Board Member) this week in San Francisco is an important event in the annual cyber security calendar. Thousands of IT security professionals gather to learn.