Coronavirus-related school closures are skyrocketing, leaving parents scrambling to educate their children while still juggling their jobs. It’s a challenging and confusing time — and Jonathan Slater and Lorna Armitage think they have something that might hold kids’ interest: a free online learning platform that teaches them about cybersecurity.
The virtual “Cyber School,” slated to launch next Monday, plans to host daily 45-minute livestreams focused on topics including an introduction to coding and algorithms, online safety, ethical hacking and social engineering.
Armitage and Slater are part of a growing cohort of cybersecurity professionals who, in addition to their day jobs, are volunteering to share their cybersecurity expertise during the coronavirus pandemic.
“What can we do to help and care? Kids are going to be out of school, why don’t we try to put something together and get them interested in computer science and cybersecurity and tech in general?” Armitage, a co-founder of the Academy of Cybersecurity, told CyberScoop. “The number one priority for me is getting some content out there for the kids and the parents to alleviate some of this stress and this pressure, and get them interested in tech.”
The school comes as other cybersecurity professionals are chipping in where they can: hunting down malware used in coronavirus-related hacking, sharing threat data with the health sector, or helping hospitals affected by cyberattacks.
The school has thousands enrolled, with requests from three schools in the U.K. to enroll nearly their entire student bodies, Slater, who i ..
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