HELP educate young people about online protection, Fortinet Phils. donated 1,400 free copies of the Cyber Safe children’s book: The Dog’s Guide to Internet Safety in selected schools in the city of Manila.
Co-authored by Renee Tarun, deputy director of information security and vice president of information security at Fortinet, the learning materials contain an easy-to-understand introduction to the possible dangers for children when they go online for school, video games, and streaming video shows, among other things.
According to Fortinet Phils. Country Manager Louie Castañeda, the Covid-19 public health crisis has hooked young people to the “web”, especially when online courses have been rolled out across the country during lockdowns.
“Children’s internet use has increased dramatically amid the pandemic, especially with the shift to distance and blended learning,” he said. “This [has] created additional threats that impact children’s privacy, safety and security… Due to children’s low understanding of these cyber threats, they may be more vulnerable targets for cyber criminals.
As part of the company’s commitment to educating the global community about cybersecurity, the book serves as a vehicle to fill the industry’s skills gap. Castañeda noted, “Fortinet helps instill good cybersecurity hygiene in children by helping teach them [on] how to behave and protect yourself online from an early age.
In conjunction with the Manila City Department of Education (DepEd), the global provider of extensive, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solutions donated 1,000, 300, and 100 copies of the book to P. Gomez Elementary School, at Aurora A. Quezon Elementary School. School and Ramon Avanceña High School, respectively.
“We are grateful for this collaboration with Fortinet,” said Dr. Maria Magdalena M. Lim, superintendent of CESO’s V-Schools division, during the virtual rotation. “We hope these children’s books donated to our schools here in Manila will help guide not only our students, [but also] their parents and teachers, so that we can protect our children from cyber threats. »
In addition to the book donation campaign, the company will also provide free training through the Fortinet Training Institute’s “Network Security Expert Certification” program, making NSE 1 and 2 available to DepEd public school teachers.
This initiative offers eight levels of certification, all voluntarilySelf-paced lessons ranging from beginner to highly technical programs that help develop and improve basic cybersecurity skills for all ages.
“The…book complements our award-winning training program,” Castañeda added. “We hope that through our collaboration and this initiative with DepEd-Manila, we can advance cyber skills in children as well as teachers, creating a safer digital environment for all.”
