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Students in Whitney Poucher's cybersecurity education courses are no strangers to highly technical topics. At Greenbrier High School in Georgia's Columbia County district, they learn how hackers monitor users' systems to exploit weaknesses, and staff from the nearby U.S. Army fort drop in to give lectures.
But some of the most relevant lessons are also the simplest.
One incident at the school stands out in Poucher's memory: A student opened another's email account, impersonating that peer and sending a threatening email message to another classmate. The victim hadn't logged out of an account on a public work station, which allowed the other student access.
Now, said Poucher, she makes sure to emphasize basic, practical security precautions-like logging out of public computers-in her courses.
Facing an increasing array of daily security threats, schools like Greenbrier are teaching what is being dubbed "cyber hygiene," the basic cybersecurity habits that will keep students safe online at home and on their school networks. As reports of large-scale cyber attacks targeting business and government institutions have multiplied in recent years, cybersecurity education has come into national focus. Across the country, schools are implementing workforce-oriented courses to prepare students for careers in designing and protecting networks.
Profound Consequences
Cyber hygiene is foundational for students on these pathways, argue some educators and privacy advocates, though they also believe it has broader relevance. It's not only IT specialists who deal with sensitive information online. Training in best practices can help middle and high school students protect their personal computers, understand the difference between ethical and unethical hacking, and prepare them to confront the digital threats they will face in the workplace.
At the same time, the challenge is to present lessons on cybersecurity habits in ways that engage, rather than overwhelm, students and resonate with their daily experiences, educators and advocates say. Teachers also say there's a need to remind students of the ethical choices that come with making decisions about how they use technology.
As targeted cyberattacks, like phishing,...