Class allows graduate students to teach students at local schools about protecting their identity
It’s a different world with the information superhighway at our fingertips. Not only is the technology beneficial in many ways, it can also be detrimental, especially when it comes to your identity. You’ve read the news. Tweens and teens upload personal information on myspace or facebook. That information is now permanently available and could end up in the wrong hands.
Photo: Anderson School of Management graduate student John Jorgensen gives a presentation to 5th grade students at Placitas Elementary School.
Last spring, University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management Professor and Center for Information Assurance Research and Education (CIARE) Director Alex Seazzu began taking graduate students in Information Assurance to local schools where the student interest was encouraging.
The Information Assurance (IA) program at the Anderson School is an interdisciplinary concentration combining specialized aspects of information systems, management, accounting and user behaviors.
The goal of the presentations was to educate students on what they need to think about before posting personal information. The Anderson group discussed the dangers of identity theft and talked with the students about how they can protect their information online. The students they spoke to were very interested and curious about Information Assurance topics and practices.
This fall, Seazzu again took ASM graduate students to several local schools to help raise awareness on protecting their personal information and identity. The class, MGMT 636, made presentations to students in New Mexico high schools including Eldorado High School, Valencia High School, Hope Christian School, Manzano High School, West Mesa High School. Middle and elementary schools including Van Buren, Hobbs Highland and Placitas also participated for the first time.
Seazzu says reaching out to young computer users before they encounter problems on the Internet is vital.
"One of the most worthwhile efforts we must support in protecting our information - national, corporate and personal - is educating our young users and raising their awareness of the dangers they face online,” he said.
Students Luis Brown and Tina Briggs gave a presentation to students at Valencia High School titled, “Crossing the Information Superhighway: Look Both Ways!” The presentation touched on several topics including e-mail practices and security as well as social networking web sites.
They also talked about social networking stalkers and how ID theft can occur and they defined private identity information which reveals who you are or where you can be found and clarified the difference between that type of information and personal information which includes information about yourself, your family and friends that cannot be used to identify you or them.
As part of the presentation, students then broke into groups of 4-5 to evaluate personal web pages and the selection of photos used. Using a list of personal and private information listed on a board in the classroom, students were asked how they could modify the page and photos.
“It’s never too early to get young people involved in thinking about information,” said Seazzu. “This is a great opportunity for our students, Anderson and UNM to step into this community role and raise awareness.”
Seazzu says the demand for information assurance skills is strong due to the need of organizations to secure their information systems and data. For more information on this growing career field visit: Information Assurance.