With many prey to cybercrime,
cyber awareness may soon be part of college curricula. According to the plans, students will be able to study cybersecurity in their university courses.
Minister of Higher Education Dr CN Ashwath Narayan said, “The state government intends to set up a CERT (computer emergency response team) for effective coordination of responses against cyber incidents. In the post-covid situation as we move towards large-scale digital transformation challenges for cyber security are also on the rise. Protecting our IT assets is of paramount importance and the next generation must be cyber-aware right from the student level itself. Thus, several courses related to cybersecurity have been included in the polytechnic, diploma and engineering curriculum. In addition to this, he added that cyber awareness will be part of the curriculum for all students.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has already taken a leap forward in cybersecurity. According CBSE civil servants, digital skills and knowledge are not evenly distributed among all young people. There is general agreement among those working on cybersecurity and child and youth safety that gender is a major barrier.
Citing the CBSE’s Cybersecurity Awareness Handbook, an official said: “Children and young people have shown a greater ability to adapt and adopt digital devices and innovations.
However, young people are often assumed to have superior skills with digital technology. It may or may not be true. Many young people are confident in using a wide range of technologies and often turn to the internet for information. But trust in digital technology can also be misleading. Cyberawareness deals with a multitude of learnings for students, such as online safety.
“As internet-enabled devices are given to younger people, it is important that we are able to protect them from harmful content. This includes cyber bullying, pornography, online exploitation, cyber crimes, etc. Sometimes strangers, even well-known people, try to gain their trust for these purposes. One way to avoid this is to use age-appropriate apps and games. These are the valuable lessons taught to students through the cybersecurity awareness program,” a CBSE official said.
