We at Cyber Sensei are concerned about online security. We want to educate K-12 demographics about personal information being hacked or stolen and how to defend against it. Cybercrime is becoming more prevalent, and knowing how to protect yourself is essential. This is where our software comes in to provide a fun, easy, and interactive way of learning so that they can be better equipped to face the rising challenges in our technological era.
Bad cyber hygiene is a growing problem that affects individuals and organizations worldwide. This issue arises due to the inadequate security practices that people and businesses adopt when interacting with the internet and technology. The problem of bad cyber hygiene is multi-faceted and complex. Cyber hygiene refers to the practices and measures individuals and organizations adopt to protect their devices, networks, and data from cyber threats, such as viruses, malware, phishing attacks, and hacking attempts. Poor cyber hygiene practices leave individuals and organizations vulnerable to cyber threats, and the consequences can be severe.
The pain resulting from bad cyber hygiene includes financial losses, loss of sensitive and personal data, reputational damage, and the disruption of business operations. Cyber-attacks can lead to identity theft, extortion, and fraud, and the damages can extend beyond the immediate victim, impacting their clients, partners, and suppliers. In severe cases, cyber-attacks can even pose a threat to national security. Bad cyber hygiene is a human problem that everyone can relate to, as almost everyone interacts with technology daily. We all have personal data that we want to protect, and we all want to use technology safely and securely. The fear of cyber-attacks and the loss of sensitive information are issues that resonate with people worldwide.
Many people and organizations have recognized the importance of addressing bad cyber hygiene and are willing to pay to solve it. For example, businesses invest in cybersecurity solutions to protect their data and operations, and individuals pay for antivirus software and password managers to safeguard their online activities. This demonstrates a willingness to invest in cybersecurity solutions that can address the problem of bad cyber hygiene.
Our design thinking process embodies concepts of being empathetic and human-centered as well as embracing ambiguity. We understand that everyone thinks and processes information differently and we wanted to learn from individuals with different backgrounds of expertise and knowledge of cyber hygiene. Those demographics laid the groundwork for developing our product and allowed for empathy in the design process as our target audience is going to feature school-aged kids with a wide range of different skill sets to start with. We want to establish fundamentals for those who have none and build upon foundations for those that are ahead of the curve.
We found empathy and inspiration for creating our product through the various sources we surveyed and inquired with regarding cyber hygiene. Our scope ranged from family and friends, colleagues and students, to complete strangers. Some of the individuals we targeted because of their specialization in fields such as IT and cybersecurity while others we found had little to no experience regarding it. The specialists provided a good foundation for asking important questions about cyber hygiene which we found was severely undereducated among those who just use IoT devices on a daily basis.