From cyber-challenged to cyber-aware

Cyber Sid

Jumping into a pool without help or water wings. That’s the challenge that awaits a fellow Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University employee.

She’s on the Learn to Swim programme offered by the university and somehow the idea of throwing herself into the deep end, sans help, is terrifying. She’s scared of putting her head under water and feeling claustrophobic.

I mean, it’s easy … you’ll naturally float to the surface …

But who am I to point fingers?

Or any of us for that matter, since we all have our fears.

For me, it’s all things technological. I am no astronaut in cyberspace going where few NMMU employees have gone before. I just don’t go there but rather cling to the safety of yesteryear’s typewriter (well, not quite, but you get my drift).

I am the antithesis of an early adapter when it comes to technology. I suppose I could be classified as an ancient adapter, the individual who still lurks way behind with the rest of the terrified pack. Yes, the adult who is still learning to swim.

But then along came Cyber Security Awareness Week at NMMU with its crafty campaign to entice the ancients into the land of the aware. (Note: I did not say the land of the early adapters!)

Each day they put out tips; offers of having your personal devices (your laptops, phones, tablets and the like) secured and an opportunity to take a cyber-awareness test.

I avoided the information like the plague or should I say like the proverbial plunge since words like cyber security, phishing and Trojan horses tend to trigger great anxiety.

Until today … that is.

Today, with the gentle encouragement of a friend, I jumped into the cyber pool.

I took the cyber-awareness test – all 10 mini modules – during my lunch break and surfaced educated and emboldened.

Yours truly and NMMU colleague Ros Baatjies passed the cyber security awareness test

Each of the lessons prior to the multiple choice tests helped me get my head around cyber space and things like social engineering, worms, networks, passwords and the like. It was altogether an enlightening and rewarding experience.

I even got a mug and a badge for my troubles – a physical reminder that I can do this; yes, that I can overcome my own swimming pool plunge …

I just needed an encouraging nudge.

What about you?

Go on, try it. It’s not nearly as difficult as you’re imaging, and if your pool is cyber stuff like mine, you might even win a coffee cup!

PS My colleague took the plunge and I have yet to see a bigger smile!

NMMU employees who successfully completed the test. Why don't you try?