14 DAY TRIAL // The White House and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have awarded Microsoft an accolade for a video the company produced part of a campaign designed to boost Internet security awareness. The award was presented by White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, to Jacqueline Beauchere, Director of Trustworthy Computing Communications, Microsoft.
Beauchere’s team produced the winning “Stop. Think. Connect.” video, as well as the additional materials of the campaign.
The “Stop. Think. Connect.” “three-word phrase is the product of the Stop. Think. Connect. (STC) Messaging Convention, a coalition of more than 30 companies, non-profits and U.S. government agencies and departments, focused on raising awareness and educating the public about Internet safety,” Beauchere revealed.
The five-part series of 30-second public service announcements “Stop. Think. Connect.” is designed to educate customers, at least at a basic level, about the minimum actions that they should take in order to protect themselves while online.
Personally, I don’t believe that patches, security solutions, “bulletproofed” software, etc. are sufficient to keep users safe online in the context in which they lack the education necessary to enable them to protect themselves.
There are a number of threats and attacks set up to “exploit” vulnerabilities in the user through social engineering schemes, rather than software holes. Such user-side flaws can only be “patched” through education.
“The STC Convention aims to produce a collection of informational and educational materials, and – like the Stop. Think. Connect. message itself – drive people to action around online safety,” Beauchere added.
“In other words, STOP: pause to consider what you plan to do online when you log in; THINK: make sure, for instance, that you provide the right amount of personal information to complete a desired transaction, and consider how that information might be misused; and then, CONNECT: with someone or some entity in the online world – and enjoy that experience in the safest, most trusted way possible.”
The STC Convention features a number of prominent technology companies in addition to Microsoft, including AT&T, Costco, Facebook, Google, McAfee, Symantec, VeriSign, Verizon, Wal-Mart, Yahoo! etc.