Ambassadors
STEM
Ambassador Cybersecurity Safeguards Badge Activity
Guard Your Movements
Identify data vulnerabilities in a typical day. /h3>
Activity Details
Setup: Everything you do online leaves a trail—a digital footprint. Just like a detective, a savvy hacker can piece together a lot of information about you by following your footprints. If you aren’t very careful with your digital devices, your personal data may be vulnerable to cyberattack.
Time needed: 20 minutes
Materials needed:
- Pad of sticky notes
- Highlighter
- Pen or marker
Activity:
To get started, ask yourself the question: how can I balance living in a digital world with safeguarding my privacy and personal information?
Then, think about all the activities that you do in a typical day, both online and off. How vulnerable do you think you are to cyberattacks, like identity theft or cyberstalkers, when you're doing these day-to-day activities?
Once you have some ideas, gather your sticky notes, highlighter, and pen. Each sticky note will represent one hour of the day.
Then, list both online and offline activities that you do on a typical day on each sticky note, from morning until bedtime. Once you’ve written on the notes, place them in chronological order on an open wall or on the floor.
Next, use a highlighter to highlight any of your activities that could be a potential personal data vulnerability. In deciding which activities to flag, it may be helpful to ask yourself questions like:
- When you were at soccer practice, did you post to social media?
- For your dentist’s appointment, did you have your dentist's address in your synced calendar?
- After you video chatted with your classmates about your history project, did you disable the webcam?
- Did you shred the mail before putting the trash out?
Give yourself ten minutes to map out the day's activities by the hour and flag any potential personal data vulnerabilities.
Then, brainstorm how you can better guard your movements throughout the day, both online and off. Write any solutions on the appropriate flagged sticky note.
Then, wrap up the activity by reading the Things to Know below.
THINGS TO KNOW:
- Technology has become an essential part of our modern lives. It keeps us connected, offers convenient ways to do tasks, and serves as a vast source of information.
- However, the more we use technology, the more vulnerable we become to our personal data being exposed.
- A data vulnerability is any weakness that leaves your data open to a cyberattack.
- In this activity, you experienced how even everyday activities can expose you to personal data threats.
- In real life, there are steps that you can take both online and off to protect your personal data
- For example, you can turn off location services on social media; be careful not to post pictures revealing your location, name, school name, or home address; keep virus protection software updated; update your passwords often; keep apps updated; disable your webcam; shred all papers with personal data; and keep your laptop and cellphone secure and password-protected.
- Remember: If it's convenient, it's probably not secure. Take the time to safeguard your personal data.
Note: Girls, volunteers and families are encouraged to take the time and space they need to adjust to this period of rapid change and uncertainty. When they’re ready, we’re here to support Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts to safely take action in their communities—whether it’s helping ensure kids are still getting the nourishment and enrichment they need out of school, responding to the possible ramifications of isolation during social distancing, adapting an existing project to positively impact local communities today, or something else entirely!
Troop Leaders: The instructions for all badge steps are available free of charge in your Girl Scout Volunteer Toolkit.
Girl Scout Activity Zone activities have been adapted from existing Girl Scout programming.
Adapted from Step 1 of the Ambassador Cybersecurity Safeguards badge. Contact your troop leader or your local Girl Scout council to become a Girl Scout and learn all the requirements needed to earn the badge.
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