OpenText™ announced a partnership with the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana to raise awareness of online dangers and the importance of becoming cyber resilient. The educational initiative was developed to teach Girl Scouts, and their families, how to identify and protect themselves from cyber threats while developing female leaders for today and tomorrow.
To become cyber resilient, families must secure all their devices including laptops, smart phones, and tablets. Antivirus protection and backup software such as OpenText Carbonite and Webroot (to prevent data loss in the event an attack is successful or when little fingers make a mistake) are two obvious places to start. Equally important is addressing cyber threats with security awareness education as Federal Trade Commission data shows imposter scams cost Americans nearly $1.2 billion1.
“The internet and social media have become increasingly present in children’s lives, both at home and at school. With cyber threats becoming more prevalent at the consumer level, good cyber resilience habits are essential to protect personal information and keep kids safe,” says Sandy Ono, Executive Vice President and CMO at OpenText. “It is our hope, by using OpenText software and raising awareness of the importance of cyber resilience at an early age, the lessons these young women learn will carry over to adulthood.”
Included in the initiative is the development of a new Cyber Resilience patch program, earned through fun and educational hands-on activities. The Cyber Resilience patch will teach Girl Scouts about the dangers that exist online, within social media, and how to protect against data loss, whether that be pictures with friends or schoolwork saved in the cloud. Participants will learn how to recognize threats and best practices to stay safe. Simulation of existing and emerging phishing attacks will help drive awareness and create safe online behavior.
“Creating spaces where girls feel emotionally, socially, and physically safe is our priority. We look for partners who want to invest in that process, helping girls build the skills they need to be influential changemakers throughout their lives,” said Nancy Wright, CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana. “Partnering with OpenText to increase cyber safety among our members makes perfect sense as they are not only a leader in the security space with their Webroot product line, but organizationally, OpenText is also committed to creating gender diversity among their leadership teams.”
