October is the European Cybersecurity awareness month. DNS Belgium makes a lot of efforts not only in October but throughout the year to make people aware of their online safety and increase their knowledge about cybersecurity.
Cybercriminals very often target older and younger people. These two groups sometimes appear to have limited knowledge about online safety. On top of that, the elderly often feel insecure on the internet and their trust in it is limited. That is why we want to use targeted campaigns to make young and old people aware of the risks of the internet, inform them about what they can do to improve their online safety and increase their trust in the internet.
#SafeNotSorry: campaign to young people
Under the slogan #SafeNotSorry, the focus of the youth campaign was on safe passwords. Together with some influencers, we made funny videos on TikTok, Instagram and SnapChat about how people think up passwords. In this way, we want to make as many young people as possible think about their passwords.
With the well-known 'Put a finger down', we challenged them to check how secure their password is. Of course, this was followed by tutorials on how to create a secure password, how a password safe works and some FAQs for those who still had questions after the videos.
Surf safely: campaign to the elderly
We also launched an awareness campaign for older people this year. With articles, videos and a knowledge test, we show elderly people what to watch out for when they shop and pay online, receive a suspicious e-mail or text message... By increasing their knowledge of online safety and cybercrime, we want to boost older people's online confidence.
For the campaign, we could count on the advice and support of Digital Ageing, the Brussels Elderly Platform, the Flemish Elderly Council and some French-speaking older people's associations. Through some of these associations, we also distributed a brochure specifically about phishing .
Edubox Cybersecurity
On Safer Internet Day, the VRT (Flemish broadcasting company), in collaboration with Mediawijs, DNS Belgium, Digital for Youth and the Cyber Security Coalition, launched the EDUbox Cybersecurity.
The free EDUbox Cybersecurity contains teaching materials for secondary school students. With bits of theory, videos, interactive exercises and assignments, students can work independently in groups around online security.
With this article, we support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.