Exploring Social Media – Amazing mind reader reveals his gift

Recently I have been covering some interesting topics with my students and amongst these is one of my favourites, Online Privacy and Digital Identities.  After one of these lessons a student, who must have been talking at home about the lesson, emailed me the link to this YouTube video that one of their parents had shown them.  I will surely be using this video in the future.

How Cybersmart are you? new 2011 clip from ACMA (Australia)

Here is a useful and informative clip on a variety of aspects of cyber awareness and cyber safety.

Promoting Cyber Safety: Think U Know

Recently I have been asked many times about good online resources or providers who are good in the area of cyber-awareness and cyber-safety. One that I frequently refer to, and that I think is massively under-utilised by schools and educational institutions, is an initiative called “Think U Know”. This website and available resources has been developed in partnership by the Australian Federal Police, Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), ninemsn, Microsoft and Virtual Global Taskforce.

I am aware that they will come out to school to run seminars for parents and teachers. There are also some great resources available to use with students.

Computer Viruses and the Internet

I have spent a lot of time throughout the years researching and collecting facts and stimulus materials on the topic of Computer Viruses. Recently when I was watching my regular TED talk on my phone I watched this talk by Mikko Hypponen. I found it fascinating for the way in which he not only explores and shows some of the history of viruses but also talks of the social and ethical implications of the contemporary viruses being releases. He explores the use of viruses from a cyber-crime and organised-crime perspective.

This is a great talk and I hope you enjoy,

Resource: School Aid website

Through the wonderful land that is twitter I was refered to this website. This group, ‘School Aid’, have developed and host some interesting and useful resources in a range of areas including cyberbullying, Australian Indigenous Literacy, Philanthropy etc… There are sections for students, parents and teachers. Worth a visit if you are looking for content in these areas.

Cyber Smart: online information resource for cyber-awareness

Here is a valuable resource that has been developed by the Australian Govt. for our youth, their parents and for us educators to refer to. The topics about the use of technology include:

• Social Networks
• Online Games
• Chat and Instant Messages
• Video Sharing
• Blogging
• Photo sharing
• Email
• Wikis
• RSS
• Social Bookmarking
• Searching on the Internet

Online Resource: Stop Cyberbullying

And another one.

Online Resource: Cyber-Awareness / Cyber-Safety

 

Here is a website that has been developed to promote cyber-awareness amongst teenagers. A great inclusion is that there are both student and teaching based resources.

Cyberbullying 2010: What the Research Tells Us | Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

An updated look at the research and definitions around bullying and cyberbullying. Presented to the Youth Online Safety Working Group assembled by NCMEC, Amanda’s talk unpacks both what current research can tell us about cyberbullying as well as where the gaps our understanding of this issue lie.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Cyberbullying 2010: What the Research Tells Us …, posted with vodpod

1.5 million Facebook ID’s sold by Hacker

I also came across this interesting article in my travels.

Via Thoughts of a Technocrat and  ComputerWorld.com –

Russian Hacker Selling 1.5 Million Facebook IDs

A hacker named Kirllos has a rare deal for anyone who wants to spam, steal or scam on Facebook: an unprecedented number of user accounts offered at rock-bottom prices.

Researchers at VeriSign’s iDefense group recently spotted Kirllos selling Facebook user names and passwords in an underground hacker forum, but what really caught their attention was the volume of credentials he had for sale: 1.5 million accounts.

IDefense doesn’t know if Kirllos’ accounts are legitimate, and Facebook didn’t respond to messages Thursday seeking comment. If they are legitimate, he has the account information of about one in every 300 Facebook users. His asking price varies from $25 to $45 per 1,000 accounts, depending on the number of contacts each user has.

To date, Kirllos seems to have sold close to 700,000 accounts, according to VeriSign Director of Cyber Intelligence Rick Howard. Hackers have been selling stolen social-networking credentials for a while — VeriSign has seen a brisk trade in names and passwords for Russia’s VKontakte, for example. But now the trend is to go after global targets such as Facebook, Howard said.

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According to some Antichat.ru forum users, Kirllos was born in Russia, lives in New Zealand, is 24 years old and speaks both English and French.