Making yourself secure while you're online is one of the biggest issues in computing. Everybody knows about the threats. Identity theft, data security, and privacy issues are in the news every day. But most people don't really know much about how to protect themselves from these threats. That was the impetus for the Cyber Self-Defense class.
On October 23, 2007, John Sawyer, IT Senior Security Engineer on the UF IT Security Team, taught the class for UF's Office of Human Resource Services. The course was designed to raise awareness of faculty and staff on topics including safe Web browsing, principle of least privilege, encrypting and backing up files, e-mail safety and wireless security.
The class was very interactive; students were asked what operating systems they used, how updates were applied to it and whether or not they used a firewall to protect their computers. Each topic inspired questions and comments from the students.
"The students in this class now understand how to deal with problems they face as end-users both at work and home," said Sawyer. "The course offered them specific tools they can use to help them feel more secure online."