M Is For Malware E Is For Education | The Cyber Society | With Curtis Brazzell & Kandis Weiler

By Marco Ciappelli & Sean Martin

Guests: Curtis Brazzell and Kandis Weiler

Right now is not the first time you will hear me say or write: "We are already living in a cyber society, so we need to stop ignoring it or pretending that it is not affecting us." This exact phrase is part of the intro for the column to which this podcast belongs: The Cyber Society.

In an aggregate of people living together in an organized community - society - for all to benefit from it, we must maintain and transmit the societal norms from one generation to another, and education is precisely how we give intellectual, moral, and social instructions to the newcomers.

Now, if societies were static, this would be an easy task. But, as humans evolve, cultures and their norms undergo gradual and perpetual changes as well.

Lately, such changes have been much more sudden and relevant than ever before. However, the education system and the societal norms haven't kept pace. While technology has played a vital role in this exponential acceleration, I am not sure that we can count on it to be the driving force that will magically fill said norms development delay and the resulting educational gap.

It is almost like we got so fascinated by the first Walkman, that by the time we played both the A and B sides of our first album on cassette, we are now holding a smartphone with a wireless headset, a touch-less payment system, an AI-driven personal assistant, and a gazillion apps that connect us with our home, office, circle of friends, and pretty much the rest the entire world.

Everyone loves the conveniences, but most of us have no idea how these things work nor what they are doing behind the scenes. Nevertheless, we are in this Internet of Things (IoT) system 24/7; grandma and grandpa are on it, so are the teenagers, and even the very young kids have connected tablets these days. Meanwhile, nobody knows much about it.

I think that we have finally realized that we went too far following the blinking lights, without knowing where we were going. Maybe we even missed the point for "why" are we going there?

Can we still fill this education gap we all talk about and advance the social norms necessary to live in this cyber-connected society?

Is there such a thing as too early to teach kids how to be safe online?

What does it take to make people understand that the future is now, not tomorrow?

Ultimately, who educates the educators?

As we get into the holiday shopping frenzy, how about a fun and educational STEM toy that can teach your kids about technology and maybe - if they like it - give them an opportunity to explore a passion that can be their future career?

We talk about it with Curtis Brazzell - an infosec professional that, inspired by the cyber safety future of his two young kids, decided to publish an illustrated book that teaches kids—and adults—about important cybersecurity terms. We start today's conversation leading off with cyber education—joined by Kandis Weiler—the Chief of Girls Education at the CyberJitsu Girls Academy to expand the conversation as she has spent many years in the InfoSec profession and is tackling these challenges head-on. She is now leading this WCS program.

Go on. Have a listen!
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For more Podcasts from The Cyber Society:
https://www.itspmagazine.com/the-cyber-society