Plenty of variety in IDCARE's latest Cyber Resilience Outreach Clinic, held across another Murray River town, this time the twin cities of Albury-Wodonga.
Rob Blackmore spent a week in the region with a range of resilience building exercises including shopping centre clinics in both cities, a local media appearance, meeting and recording interviews with former clients of IDCARE, a market day and a school visit.
Rob spoke to ABC Goulburn/Murray about the growing risk in Australia of scams with breakfast presenter Sandra Moon (click here to listen). This discussion led to several listeners attending our shopping centre clinics with stories of their own scam experiences and strong motivation to learn more about what services IDCARE provides to ensure ongoing awareness.
Rob spoke to all grade 5s and 6s at the Scot’s School Albury over two presentations, covering the importance of identity documents such as birth certificates and Medicare cards. Passwords were a big hit with some great examples of the more bizarre techniques for creating complex combinations volunteered by the group. A great activity led to the creation of some fantastical password phrases which then used an acronym to create unique passwords. Lots of interest in this tip from students and teachers!
All kids and teachers took home the QR code for IDCARE's scam vulnerability quiz and were keen to talk more about the topics discussed with their parents. Some noted the Tinder Swindler on Netflix had been watched or discussed recently at home which enabled a good discussion on how such relationship scams work. Some good engagement around messaging platforms and what's being used by their age group (9,10,11) and the big red flag of not moving conversations to other platforms when strangers ask, was well received.
Perhaps most interestingly when asked if they had been sent a scam text or received a call - all hands were raised. The levels of awareness and online knowledge was impressive, and the kids are well setup to combat the risks of cybercrime as they enter their teenage years.
During the Sunday market clinic Rob was able to speak to a range of market holders about the risk to small business from cyber scams and using the IDCARE Scam Risk quiz was able to give many the tools required to ensure greater security in their various accounts and platforms. It was a lovely finish to the week when young Arabella from grade 5 who attended our Scot’s School clinic, came over with her family and was very excited to show them what she had learned during the week regarding online security.
