Comments on: Kids Learn About Cyber Security – About Time Too!

By: Pantagruel

Pantagruel — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 07:18:28 +0000

High schools seem to meet the employer requirements, they teach their kids MS products just because that’s the mainstream product and prpes them for the future. It would be a sane/good idea to also teach them about gpl and alikes, but I guess they rely on people picking that up at university etc.

By: tekse7en

tekse7en — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 07:02:27 +0000

I’m in high school, and I wish my school taught us compsec… Our computer literacy class is just a semester long tutorial in Microsoft Office… it pisses me off. Then, event the gamers who claim to be computer nerds think they could just hack into the school and change their grades and retarded crap like that. 100% of kids I’ve ever talked to have no idea what linux is, or what an operating system is, and only a few kids know about firefox, but none of them understand why it is safer than IE. I taught myself everything I know, with no help from school or parents (who think that open source software must be dangerous because it’s free and you shouldn’t just download stuff from anywhere (my moms reaction to me asking why she didn’t use openoffice instead of buying MS office)). Sorry for the little rant.

ps- the little math question never works the first time for me. I had to write this twice.

By: Darknet

Darknet — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 03:42:34 +0000

Navaho: Yah it would make our generation so much more aware of the security issues involved with computing, rather than having to learn ourselves from basics as we went along. Linux would have been great, I’m glad to see some countries are investing in Linux in schools, it gives the kids so much more choice and opportunity for creative thinking and learning, not just “Do this, click that” mentality of Windows.

John Preston: Yah I’m from UK too, we didn’t have any open source software at school or college, and nothing was taught about infosec. I’d sign the petition :D

By: John Preston

John Preston — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:25:47 +0000

I’m in England and I damn wish my high-school taught us about compsec. I’ve had to teach myself most of what I know through the Internet and my Dad, who’s an IT Consultant. SANS@Home and LearnKey are too expensive, anyone up for a ‘Free resources for under-18s’ petition? =)

By: Navaho Gunleg

Navaho Gunleg — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:15:48 +0000

Yeh I sometimes imagine what life would be like if we, as kids, would’ve had the opportunity to work with linux in stead of the TRS’s or the BBC machines in school. (It sure would be cheaper for the educational system as a whole as well, thinking of licenses and stuff.)

But I slightly digress. This is indeed a good initiative. It should’ve started ages ago though, but better late than never. The kids can inform their parents when they see them doing something wrong or stupid and the world is a better place. Also, if they know the ‘basics’, they are more easy to pick up the new stuff, in contrast to the people that still see this Internet thing as something abstract and almost magic.

Sure there’ll be a few odd ones out that could actually be enticed into the darker side of the realm of cyber-’security’, but those guys have always existed. As long as the rest of the people are educated too, this kind-of evens the odds.