To spread the message of the importance of Information Security among their peers - that was the goal the Year 1 and 2 students from the Diploma in Infocomm Security Management (DISM) set themselves when they got together to organise the IT Security Awareness Day 2009 (ITSA09). This event has been a regular affair conducted every year by the DISM students since the start of the diploma in 2006.
This year, ITSA09 was held on 2 Dec 2009, Wed, at MLT12. Before the seminar started, the DISM students set up fringe activities where they demonstrated simulated hacking to show how unprotected PCs can be compromised easily. Student organiser Hanley Shun felt “that the fringe activities had proved to be a useful idea in bringing the message across to people”.
Station Inspector Dominic Theseira from the Singapore Police Force came to share with students on the current trends in cybercrime. He peppered his talks with real-life cases and emphasized on penalties that the criminals received for their illegal acts. Mr Dominic Theseira shared with the audience the legal liability that the Internet poses and the need to be more aware and careful with their activities on the Internet. The talk drove home the message of safe and responsible surfing.
Mr Joel Neo from Fei Yue Community Service shared with students about keeping personal information confidential in social networks. He also highlighted the importance of responsible blogging and the implication of sharing one's thoughts in a public domain.
Apart from the informative talks, the audience enjoyed the games conducted during the seminar. Students were asked to unscramble words, break codes, and guess information security phrases and many walked away with prizes.
