SPONSORED EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS Grades 6–8

LESSON 1 Understanding Online Safety

Introduce your students to the tools and techniques hackers employ to grab users’
information, and then guide them to protect themselves against future attacks.

Objective Instructions

1 5
Students will analyze Ask students what they think Explain to students that the Children’s
text, citing evidence and
summarizing central cybersecurity might mean and involve. Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
ideas. They will make Collect student ideas on the board. Define put restrictions in place to protect kids’
inferences to create
their own cybersecurity cybersecurity as the practice of defending personal information. Note that COPPA
protection plan. computers and servers, mobile devices, also rules that social media companies
Time electronic systems, networks, and data cannot allow children under the age of 13
45 minutes from malicious attacks. Ask students why to use their services.
they think cybersecurity is important.

6
Materials Distribute the Create Your Online
• Copies of #CyberSmarts
student magazine
• Create Your Online
Protection Plan activity
2 Prepare students to do a close reading
of the article and job profiles in the
student magazine by providing them with
Protection Plan activity sheet and
guide students to refer to the magazine as
they complete their plans.
sheet
the following guiding questions:
Level the Lesson
• Why are cybersecurity professionals
Grade 6 Since many sixth-graders
necessary in today’s world?
may be under 13, use this as an
• In what ways do people leave opportunity to broach the subject
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themselves vulnerable to being hacked? of social media usage. Survey the

• Why is it important to take steps to class (possibly anonymously) about
protect your identity while online? the apps and sites they use or want
to use. Encourage them to have a

3 Distribute copies of the student conversation with their parent(s) or

legal guardian(s) about which sites
magazine and ask students to use the
are appropriate to use and ways they
questions above to focus their reading. can enjoy supervised access.

4 Lead a class discussion about how

hacking might affect students, asking
them to use supporting details from the
magazine and specific examples from
their lives. Start with: Do you feel that your
personal information is secure online?

Sponsored by Norton LifeLock

Norton LifeLock is part of one company dedicated to consumer Cyber Safety.
SPONSORED EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS Activity

Name

Create Your Online Protection Plan

When it comes to online safety, it’s best to think ahead. Use the boxes below to
fill in the cyber threats you are most likely to encounter, when you encounter
them, and how to protect yourself.

Cyber threat to watch for I often see this when I’m... Strategy to protect myself
Ex: Pop-up ads Ex: Checking text messages Ex: Use antivirus software

Cyber threat to watch for I often see this when I’m... Strategy to protect myself

Cyber threat to watch for I often see this when I’m... Strategy to protect myself
 SPONSORED EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS Grades 6–8

LESSON 2 Identifying Preventive Technologies

Inspire your students to explore the unique types of technology that cybersecurity
pros use to combat threats and keep us safe.

Objective Instructions

1 4
Students will synthesize Explain what preventive technology is Tell students they will present their
research information to
convey technological and how it’s the first line of defense research in a visual/interactive way.
processes using domain- against cybersecurity threats. Give an Provide these presentation options:
specific language in an
informational presentation. example (e.g., antivirus software), then ask
•O
 ption 1 Write and perform a skit, acting
students to share others they know of.
Time out a situation where personal data is at

2
45 minutes, plus time to Provide students with a list of risk and how the assigned technology
develop presentations
preventive technologies built and successfully protects the user.
Materials used by cybersecurity pros (e.g., firewalls, •O
 ption 2 Write an interview/dialogue
• Know Your Protection
activity sheet available at ad blocker apps, antivirus software, between a computer user and the
scholastic.com voice recognition software, virtual assigned technology. Use role play to
/cybersmarts
private network). Explain that different have the technology “come to life” and
technologies safeguard against different explain to the user how it works to keep
types of threats. people safe.

3 Divide students into small groups and

5 After the presentations, debrief by
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assign each group a type of technology asking each group to share at least one
to learn more about (or have each group thing they learned about a technology other
choose one). Download and distribute the than the one they researched.
Know Your Protection activity sheet. Give
them the following research goals:

•C
 learly and concisely describe what the
technology is and how it works.
•D
 escribe the specific threat(s) this
technology protects against and
situations when those threats are most
likely to occur.
•G
 ive user-oriented tips for how to activate
the technology and ensure it’s working.

Sponsored by Norton LifeLock

Norton LifeLock is part of one company dedicated to consumer Cyber Safety.
SPONSORED EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS Activity

Name

Know Your Protection

Learn the tools cybersecurity experts have developed to make sure you are not
a target for hackers.

STEP 1: Choose one cybersecurity tool to research.

STEP 2: Compile research about the tool you selected.

• How does the technology work?

• In what situations are these threats most likely to occur?

• What tips should users follow to activate the technology and ensure it’s working?

ACT IT OUT
Bring your research to life by demonstrating how the technology you researched works.
Option 1 Option 2
Perform a skit, acting out a Create an interview/dialogue
situation where personal data is between a computer user and the
at risk and how the technology assigned technology. Use role-play
protects the user. to have the technology explain to
the user how it protects their safety.
 SPONSORED EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS Grades 6–8

LESSON 3 Making Online Profiles More Secure

Inspire your students to explore the cybersecurity strategies that can help thwart
threats and keep them safe.

Objective Instructions

1 5
Students will use Ask students to consider how they Explain that cybersecurity experts analyze
analytical and reasoning
skills to identify areas behave differently at home, in school, how people use information online to
of vulnerability in an and around strangers. Have them explain identify security weaknesses and develop
online profile and come
up with strategies for why they may be more aware of/adjust their strategies to protect against potential threats.
how to make them more behavior depending on who they are with. Ask
secure by applying
information from a text.
students to discuss in pairs why people are
cautious around strangers. Have pairs share
6 Distribute the Analyze Your Profile
activity sheet. Have students read the
information and share what they found most
Time their discussions with the class.
90 minutes (two class surprising/interesting. Encourage them to
periods)
Materials 2 Challenge students to compare being
cautious around strangers to their
use the sheet as a safety tool at home.

• Analyze Your Profile

activity sheet
• Find the Security Holes!
habits on social media (Instagram, game
chat, Snapchat, etc.). Ask them if they think
7 Distribute the Find the Security Holes!
activity sheet. Once students have
completed the sheets, review as a class.
activity sheet their peers actively think about protecting
(Answers: Profile picture should not be a
their privacy online. If not, why do they
photo of the user—use an avatar or clip art;
think this is?
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privacy settings should be “on”; do not use

3 Ask a few volunteers to describe the

purpose of an online profile. Emphasize
that while a profile is meant to be public,
your real full name; birth date should not
include year; do not share home or location;
do not include school name or other personal
people often forget that giving the outside details, like phone number.)
world access to personal details can Extension
have negative and potentially dangerous
consequences. As a culminating project, instruct
students to use what they learned to

4 Prompt students to think about types invent their own cybersecurity device.
of profile information that might make They should detail how it works, what
it protects against, and how users can
them vulnerable online. Co-create an anchor
install it on their devices.
chart documenting student responses.

Sponsored by Norton LifeLock

Norton LifeLock is part of one company dedicated to consumer Cyber Safety.
SPONSORED EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS Activity

Name
Take This Home!
Use this list to
make sure all

Analyze Your Profile

your profiles
are safe.

Read the checklist below to make sure you aren’t leaving yourself vulnerable to
a cyberattack. Fill in any extra details you’ve learned in class or from additional
research in the spaces below each set of tips.

STEP 1
These parts of your profile can give away too much private information:
Username Avoid using any part of your first or last name.
Birthday Don’t post the year you were born—the whole Internet will know your age!
L ocation Leave off your street address, town, and school name.
Phone number Avoid listing your area code in particular; it can reveal your general
location and leave you vulnerable to phone scams.


STEP 2
Keep your personal information secure/protected from cyberthreats:
Make sure your username and password meet maximum security standards.
Don’t publicly share your birthday.
 on’t use location tags in social media posts; avoid sharing your location publicly.
D
 void saving your password for auto login; avoid staying logged in.
A


STEP 3
Outsmart hackers on the hunt for vulnerable profiles:
Check your privacy settings to make sure your profile info is restricted to who you
want to view it (i.e., your close friends or family).
 estrict access to your profile info, photos, posts, and other personal information.
R
 ever approve friend requests or add people you don’t know in real life.
N
Be careful about in-app purchases or clicking on pop-up links.
Disable location sharing on social media apps so other users can’t track you.

SPONSORED EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS Activity

Name

Find the Security Holes!

Attention, online gamers! Cyberthieves are looking for ways to steal your personal
info—and even sell your account. Study the sample profile below and identify any
red flags that could make it easy for your account to be hacked. Using the chart
below, describe each issue you spot and write in a possible security fix.

Privacy Settings OFF

LEVEL: 2

Username: NickyBell2004
Birthday: September 29, 2004
Hometown: Berryville, VA

About me: I’m a student at Lincoln Middle School and I live to play Fortnite!

Starbright424: Hey, can you message me your number so we can talk stats? :)

Click here to leave a comment Comment

What raised a red flag? Suggested security fix

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
 SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved. © 2019. 685466.
Photo JGI/Jamie Gril; Alyson Aliano; Hero Images; Eternity in an Instant
Sponsored Educational Materials

online
hacked
not to get
AKA: How

3 cool
+
careers

Sponsored by Norton LifeLock

crime-busting
#CyberSmarts
Hack-Proof
Your Life!
Scammers all over the internet want to take over
your video games, hijack your social media, and
steal your money. Here’s how they do it and how to
keep your most personal info safe.

Y
ou’ve just finished a ton of homework and you’re ready to kick
back and play video games. You log in to your game account
and immediately notice something’s not right. For one thing, you
have a bunch of new updates, which you definitely didn’t buy.
Not only that, but your screen name is different. You’re totally shook
when you realize what’s up: You’ve been hacked.

Online scammers are every- How Hackers Get You

where. These cybercriminals In movies, hackers are hoodie-
may get into your bank account wearing computer whizzes
and steal your money, pretend who command a computer
to be you on social media, and screen, pounding at a keyboard
even threaten to post personal to crack an enemy’s code. But
stuff about you to scare in the real world,
you into giving them
Nearly hackers use “scripts,”

60
money. Gamers are software that finds
especially vulnerable— digital weaknesses.
after hackers log in and The scripts attempt
rack up purchases on to log in to thousands
kids’ accounts, they can
sell the souped-up user million of computers at
once using easy-to-
profiles for money. Americans guess usernames
One easy way to have been and passwords.
protect yourself: Do not victims of Researchers at the
reuse your password. identity theft University of Maryland
—2018 online survey
According to Vinny by the Harris Poll found a pattern to the
Troia, CEO of Night Lion passwords that hackers
Security and a “certified try most. One of the
Photos: Guerilla; Hero Images

ethical hacker” (he figures out most popular: a password that’s

hacks before they happen), either the same as your username
“Once someone knows what or a close variation. Or one that’s
your password is, they can go to a username with a series of
other sites you’re on and hack numbers tacked on, like 123. (Um,
you over and over again.” don’t do this!)
2 | #CYBERSMARTS
 MY COOL CYBER JOB
ROSHAN
DANESHVARAN
CTO and co-
founder of Syfer

What first sparked your

interest in tech?
When I was a kid, I watched
the original Terminator movie,
and the idea of Skynet—an
artificial intelligence system
that could harm people—
scared and intrigued me.
I developed an interest in
artificial intelligence and
robotics and a fascination for
what computers can do
for us in the future.

So what do you do at your job?

I’m a cybersecurity
professional. There are bad
guys (cybercriminals) on
Phishing Warning and changed his password,
the internet trying to steal
Often, though, hackers can be recovery password, and phone money and information from
super-sneaky individuals you number! The scam artist also people and companies. My
meet online who will accessed Jake’s mom’s job is to help people protect
phish (pronounced Every credit card, and Jake’s themselves against these

39
“fish”) for your login emails and everything criminals. I study networks
info. Last summer, Jake in them. Lesson: Never and software, and ultimately
I architect the cybersecurity
Photos: kali9; Adam Crowley; Hero Images. Photo Courtesy of Haley Dickerson. Photo Courtesy of Roshan Daneshvaran

Bates, 13, was in a really give your account info

safeguards to keep the bad
intense battle with a to anyone—even a real- guys away.
gamer on Fortnite. The seconds life friend.
Mason, Ohio, teen had there’s a While teenagers might What do you love best about
been chatting with his hacker attack be easy targets, even your job?
opponent for hours —2017 Clark adults (and schools) can I defend what is good. I get
when the gamer said School, University of be victims of phishing. to be a superhero, but in the
Maryland study cyber world. Cybersecurity
he could give Jake One California teen
is like playing chess, and
some cool new skins sneakily got access to methods evolve every day. I
if he shared his username and his school district’s computer have to study and learn new
password. What the gamer did system by emailing teachers a link techniques so that I can stay
next: He took over Jake’s account to a fake grade portal website that ahead of the criminals.

MY COOL CYBER JOB stand. In high school, I taught pillars of marketing from As long as there is a way
myself how to build a website, behavioral neuropsychology: to store, send, and receive
HALEY DICKERSON and I read books on different Why do people do what data from one device to
Marketing coding languages. From then they do? And how can you another, there will be a
director for on, I took every opportunity manipulate this behavior? high demand for talented
CyGlass to work with my new Taking information cybersecurity professionals.
skills: for local government technology (IT) courses gave With countless cyberattacks
When did you first get campaigns, restaurants, me the tools to be successful occurring across all
interested in marketing? friends and family. in digital marketing. industries and making
I was always “marketing,” daily news headlines, there
even when I was 8 and How does what you studied What would you say to kids is a major spotlight on
wrote a strategy, in crayon, in college relate to your job? thinking about getting into a cybersecurity right now that
to promote my lemonade I unintentionally learned the field like cybersecurity? is here to stay.

#CYBERSMARTS | 3
looked like the real one. control everything MY COOL CYBER JOB

40
Once teachers entered a (like what happens at
username and password, school), you can help JORDAN
the teen hacker used keep your personal info
them to log in to the real % protected. Be wary if
MCCARTHY
Infrastructure
portal. He changed his of Americans someone you know is and security
friends’ grades to better have had their suddenly acting shady team lead at Tech Impact
ones and even lowered password online, like sending
the grades of some compromised you messages asking When did you get interested in
students. Fortunately, — 2017 Norton for money or to meet computers?
Cyber Security When I was 13, I asked my
the police caught him. Insights Report up somewhere alone.
aunt if I could have her
When the phony email “Hackers trick people all broken computer to tinker
was traced back to the the time into thinking with. I tore the machine apart
16-year-old’s computer, Secret that they are someone their and rebuilt it. I still remember
Service agents broke down the victim knows and trusts,” says the feeling of euphoria when
door to his family’s home and Jordan McCarthy, infrastructure I flipped the power switch–
arrested him. He was charged and security team lead at Tech and the screen turned on!
I was hooked, and I started
with 14 felony crimes and was Impact. If you get a weird
a program at my school to
suspended from school. message, talk to a trusted adult collect dead computers,
right away. For more tips on rebuild them, and distribute
Staying Smart staying safe, check out the them to kids who didn’t have
Although you obviously can’t “Digital Dos and Don’ts” below. computers at home.

What’s your favorite part of

your job?
DIGITAL DOS AND DON’TS I get alerted about several
malicious hacking attacks
Be smart about online safety with these simple rules. every day, some of which
are really clever. Whenever I
Don’t use your name as a username or screen name. By doing a simple hear about a new attack, I can
internet search, strangers can use your name to find out a ton of usually shut down important
personal information about you. Don’t pick a revealing number like your birth parts of the systems the
year, birthdate, or your jersey number, either. attackers are using within
minutes—and prevent tens
of thousands of people from
Do use strong passwords! A strong password has eight characters or
information theft.
more (longer passwords are harder to crack), as well as a mixture of
uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters (like !, @, or
How much of cybersecurity
#). It’s best to use “nonsense” words that can’t be found in a dictionary. work is what it seems like in
Change your password regularly and don’t share it with anyone, even friends. the movies?
And always use different passwords for different sites. The stuff you see in
hacker movies is obviously
Don’t give out your name, number, or address to anyone online. Keep in exaggerated, but my job does
mind that whoever is chatting over games or social media may not be sometimes feel like that. There
who they say they are. And they could be trying to get your personal info. have been situations where
I’ve been up against a hacker
Do keep your online presence clean. A good rule to remember: Would who is actively working in
you say it in front of a teacher? Part of staying safe is keeping your someone’s systems, and I
digital footprint free of anything you might regret posting later. need to figure out how to kick
them out before they figure
out what I’m doing.
Don’t download apps from sources you don’t know. There are fake apps
that exist just so the bad guys can snag personal data off your phone.
What’s a cool way you solved a
Photo Courtesy of Jordan McCarthy

Get your apps from trusted stores like Google Play or the Apple App Store.
tech problem?
I helped my dad recover a
Do avoid public Wi-Fi if at all possible. Hackers love public Wi-Fi because bunch of critical data from a
they can easily get between you and the connection spot, and grab crashed computer by putting
every single thing you’re sending over the internet. To protect yourself, talk to the hard drive in the freezer!
your family about signing up for a VPN service if possible (VPN stands for It’s a last-resort trick used
virtual private network). A VPN uses “encryption” to change your internet to shrink “stuck” metal in
activity into code—and make it unreadable to hackers. the drive and get its parts
spinning and working again.

4 | #CYBERSMARTS