CYBERSECURITY AWARENESS MONTH

RESOURCE TOOLKIT FOR AMERICAN SPACES

This Resource Toolkit is designed for programming at American Spaces to increase participants’ awareness of the importance of cybersecurity.

RESOURCES

National Cyber Security Alliance

This site has great tips on how to stay safe online. It also has weekly themes and social media content that you can use and ways your Space can be involved.

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

This agency has information available on its Cybersecurity Awareness Month webpage.

Federal Trade Commission

A speaker toolkit, lesson plans for educators’

PBS Cybersecurity Lab Game

Econ@State

Learn about how you can promote the 5G Security Campaign.

WHAT IS CYBERSECURITY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Strengthening our international partnerships on cybersecurity is a top priority for the United States. The Cybersecurity Awareness Month campaign, taking place throughout October, represents an opportunity to promote stronger cybersecurity practices globally. With over half the world’s population online, the internet is central to everything from social interactions to business to critical infrastructure, such as power plants. Now more than ever it’s important that we all do our part to keep the internet safe and secure. We encourage you to take part this October in Cybersecurity Month.

Did you know?

The U.S. Department of State established the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy in October 2021. This new bureau encourages responsible state behavior in cyberspace and advances policies that protect the integrity and security of the infrastructure of the Internet. Learn more here.

RESOURCES

Videos/Movies

From Public Broadcasting Services – These 3 minute videos from PBS cover privacy online, hacking, and encryption.
TedTalk “The 1s and 0s behind cyber warfare” – Chris Domas, a cybersecurity researcher, shows how pattern recognition and reverse engineering can be used in cyber warfare.
Firewall – In this feature film, a security specialist is forced to help rob a bank to pay his family’s ransom.

Articles

The Oxford Internet Institute has created resource toolkits for civil society organizations to address issues of cyber.

ShareAmerica

Lesson Plans

Science Buddies Cybersecurity Lesson Plans This 60-90 minutes program includes detailed sections: summary, materials, teacher prep, lesson, and reviews.
Department of Homeland Security – This page has lots of lesson plans and resources for educators.

Highlighted Content

Online Educational Games

Often overlooked as education tools, educational video games are an excellent way to make difficult subjects more engaging. Here are some of our favorite games related to internet literacy:

Google’s Interland – This very fun arcade style game teaches information technology safety, signs to spot hackers, and how to be a good digital citizen.
Cybersecurity Lab – Developed by NOVA, players choose an avatar and defend a company from cyber attacks, crack passwords, and confront hackers.
FBI Safe Surfing Games – These games are designed for different age levels in English and Spanish and teach safe internet browsing skills.
MediaSmarts – This site has a number of fun educational games related to internet literacy
NewsFeed Defenders – From iCivics you can choose an avatar to detect and disregard disinformation.

Online Courses

Mozilla Web Literacy – This Mozilla Web Literacy series contains 9 well-developed and fun lesson plans to teach web basics to beginners of any age. Part II has 9 more advanced lessons.
There are numerous free online courses related to cybersecurity at EdX.org, Coursera, and elsewhere that your Space could use to run group courses.