In these last 50 hours, I learned the importance of security on a general level. During this time, I learned how to stay safe during an active shooter situation and how to keep those around me safe or how to save their lives if being attacked. I was also given the opportunity to speak to individuals at a community service event and educate them on recent cyber attacks, advising them on how to practice good cyber hygiene. It’s important to remember that good cyber hygiene can help prevent a cyber attack on one’s systems.  

In the last paragraph, I mentioned how I learned how to stay safe during an active shooter situation but not its connection to the importance of security as a whole. During the active shooter training, it was explained in great detail to me about the concept of Run, Hide, Fight. In an active shooter situation, this slogan is used to save the lives of you and those around you. To understand the slogan in its entirety, let’s break it down. The first option is to Run, which requires individuals to create an escape route, leaving all items behind and get others to follow if willing. You’ll also want to leave those injured in the situation behind and avoid being in the eyesight/range of the active shooter. The Run option concludes by keeping individuals from entering where the shooter is and when leaving the area, keeping their hands up after calling 911.

The second option is to Hide, where you’d want to hide where the shooter cannot see or find you easily. In this option you will want to lock and barricade the door with other objects in the room, putting your phone on silent (do NOT turn it off!) and create a plan of attack if the shooter manages to enter the room and find you. The final option is to Fight. It was shared to us that this option needs to be saved as a last resort because you WILL have to fight as if your life depends on it. From this training, I learned that fighting fair in an active shooter situation is impossible. Be just as aggressive as the shooter and use any objects around you that can cause serious damage. 

During the community service event, I was able to engage with a variety of people ranging from kids to elderly individuals and each had different backgrounds. For the group I was in, we shared the teachings of how to create a strong password and the importance of having one, a how-to guide, and a basic explanation of how to stay safe on the internet. When it comes to learning how to stay safe online and who cyber criminals target, I find that it heavily relates to my Cybersecurity & Social Science (CYSE 201S) course that I took during my freshman year. In CYSE 201S, we discussed the human behavior for a cybercriminal and their motives for attacking who they attack. For the most part, it was found that cybercriminals will target based on the vulnerability of an age group which is most commonly is older individuals.