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Identity theft can happen to anyone, regardless of who you are, where you are from, or what you do for a living. It can happen to you just as it happened to me. When a Cybermonster stole my identity to smuggle women into the US, I felt like my life was managed by someone else. When I googled my name, I saw that everything was in Chinese characters. My heart just stopped. I wanted to cry, scream and hide, all at the same time. All I wanted was to feel safe again, for things to go back to normal, and to wake up from this nightmare. I spent all my time hoping this wasn’t happening. The reality is it did happen […]

Are you ready for another Happily Ever Cyber fairytale? Let’s learn about a little girl named Goldilocks, and her encounter with the three bears.  Once upon a time, there lived 3 bears. Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Baby Bear lived in a cute wooden cottage in a deep forest. They loved each other very much, and did almost everything together.  They had matching chairs and bowls, matching computers and phones, and even matching WiFi networks and chargers. They loved listening to music together and going for long walks in the morning while their porridge cooled down.  One such morning, Mama Bear had just finished making a big pot of porridge. She served the porridge in their bowls and opened the window […]

Recently a tech savvy friend of mine posted her vaccine card on social media showing her name and date of birth. Immediately, I was concerned. She wanted to celebrate a proud moment, share her beliefs with the world, and demonstrate how important this action was to her, and that’s why that moment of excitement overrode the knowledge of the threats she knows exist in the cyber world. A side effect is an adverse, harmful or unwanted effect that happens as a result of getting a desired or needed. When we share vaccination cards (or any other medical records), we are increasing our risks of being victims of a cyber attack. Social media platforms (such as Facebook and LinkedIn) are vulnerable when […]

Do you know what malvertising is? The first time I heard about malvertising I was in shock! Early in my career in cybersecurity, I had to learn about so many new concepts. It was a process to shift my thinking to understand how Cybermonsters work.  Learning about how Cybermonsters use legitimate ways to infect our computers was something I had never thought of.  I knew that I could get malware or a virus if I clicked or opened an infected file on my computer or other devices, but learning that I could get infected by visiting my favorite websites was surreal. The fact that by simply hovering my mouse on an infected image could hinder my devices was crazy.  What is […]

Are you ready for another cyber literacy story? Today we’re talking about the ugly duckling story… with a twist! This is a tale about 3 ducklings and cyberbullying. Once upon a time, there lived three “ugly” ducklings in three different locations in the world.  One of the ducklings lived in the country – he liked to play near an old farmhouse, and he enjoyed taking pictures of beautiful nature with his phone camera. He would look up interesting nature facts on his computer to learn about the world around him. The second duckling lived in the city – she loved hopping, skipping, and jumping outside, and making phone videos of herself having cool adventures exploring the world around her. She shared […]