Stephen Carrick-Davies, Childnet’s CEO travelled to Malaysia this week to speak at a special Knowledge Sharing Session on public awareness hosted by (ISC)2, Affiliated Local Interest Group (ALIG) and CyberSecurity Malaysia. The event served to launch the ESecurity.org.my website, which was unveiled by The Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Government of Malaysia, Y.B. Dato’ Kong Cho Ha.
“There was a magical atmosphere,” explained Stephen as he described his experience as the guest speaker. He was referring to the 60 + school children who interacted with him as he presented excerpts from Childnet’s Safe & Secure Online presentation currently being used by (ISC)2 volunteers in schools in the United Kingdom.
With support and training from Childnet, (ISC)2 members have reached out to nearly 3,000 students by visiting schools across the UK. This program and other initiatives supported by Childnet were highlighted to demonstrate the value of a comprehensive approach that involves government, industry, schools and parents.
Stephen spoke for over an hour on the lessons learned in developing effective awareness initiatives to an audience of 190. “Increasingly there is an overlap between information security and internet safety” he said.
“Young people need information on how to keep themselves safe and security professionals are passionate about information security and want to ensure that young users are empowered to keep both their computers secure and their personal details safe. I believe that Childnet can be a real ‘bridge’ and continue to develop a model whereby we bring this specialist advice and knowledge from the security industry to schools and parents.” He went on, I hope we can replicate the volunteer model of outreach we have pioneered in the UK as well as translate and make available our Know IT All material for schools across Malaysia.”
Philip Victor, Head of Training and Outreach at Cybersecurity Malaysia says,
“We are so grateful to Stephen for coming to Malaysia to share from the lessons learnt at Childnet and what they have been able to achieve in the UK. We hope to emulate this work here in Malaysia and share resources so that children in Malaysia can keep safe and secure online.”
(ISC)2 is the non-profit global leader in educating and certifying information security professionals. Around the world there are currently over 50,000 information security specialists in 129 countries holding one or more (ISC)2 credentials. Across the Asia-Pacific region alone there are some 8,100 members with 162 members in Malaysia.
Elise Yacobellis, Director of Corporate Development, (ISC)2 also spoke at the event and outlined strategies for deploying national cyber security awareness programs. When she asked the adults if they were willing to volunteer for info security awareness programs for young people, over 50 people showed their hands. Elise says, Elise Yacobellis, Director of Corporate Development for (ISC)², said,
“We are so pleased to collaborate with INFOSEC.my and Childnet to bring Internet safety and cyber security awareness to teenagers in Malaysia. We were so honoured to have Stephen share his experiences with security awareness initiatives in the UK. His presentation was highly engaging, and his expertise will benefit not only local young people and their parents but also our certified information security professionals who are ready to volunteer to share their knowledge to help protect citizens of their community. (ISC)² shares Childnet’s vision for empowering our younger generation with responsible computing to mitigate security threats in the community.”
For more information Contact:
Childnet—Stephen Carrick-Davies,
, +44 (0) 20 7639 6967
(ISC)2 in the UK—Lyndsay Turley
