Mr. President, America’s cybersecurity problem is an education problem.
Hadi Partovi
Founder, Code.org // Angel investor: Facebook, DropBox, airbnb, Uber, etc // Boards: Axon, MNTN.
This is what I said to President Joe Biden and all the CEOs and leaders at today’s Presidential Summit on Cybersecurity:?
Mr. President, America’s cybersecurity problem is an education problem.?
It’s not just the challenge to staff the cyber defense workforce, with hundreds of thousands of unfilled job openings, with well-paying jobs even for people with 2-year degrees.?
It’s an education problem because the weakest link in our cyber defenses is people — people who don’t know the basics of how to stay safe online. We all know almost every major attack is linked back to one person who made a simple, avoidable mistake.?
I loved Satya Nadella’s wonderful analogy to the car industry, and like Satya said, we need standards for seatbelts in every car for sure. But if none of the drivers took a course in basic safety skills, our roads could never, ever be safe.?
That’s the current state of affairs on the roads of the internet. Without proper education, we can’t address our nation’s weakest link.?
If you look around, every CEO is nodding their head because they know we need a plan to educate every American on basic cyber security hygiene, and also a plan to staff up our cyber defense workforce. This needs to start early, in K-12, and reach everybody.?
In the USA, most schools don’t even offer a single class on basic computer science or cybersecurity. In China, computer science is mandatory for every student starting in primary school.?
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The education leaders present today, from universities, community colleges, K-12, or after-school, we all bear a responsibility.?
My organization Code.org teaches computer science and cybersecurity in 1/3 of America’s schools, reaching tens of millions of students. The other organizations here run university programs, outreach programs, curricula.?
But what we lack is a coordinated plan to reach EVERY student.
This work needs two things:?
1) Federal support behind the idea that cyber security and more broadly computer science is absolutely critical to basic education for every student. President Obama set this goal in 2016. 5 years later we need to finish the job.?
2) And we need a coordinated effort together with the largest tech companies and all the companies here: to teach every single American basic cybersecurity hygiene.?
Thank you Mr. President. It is an honor to be speaking to you and to everybody convened here today.
Founder-Pilot Prodigies | NASA Intern | Naval ROTC Scholarship ASU | Aviation, Drone & STEM Ambassador, Board Member, Public Speaker, Private Pilot Glider, Certified Drone Pilot, Drone Soccer, General Aviation Advocate
2 年I have used code.org it is awesome!
Great points and well stated for 98% of the cases. But as these cyber attacks get more and more sophisticated, there should be a national alert and continuous mass education as the nature of latest and newest attacks are discovered.
The only thing Hadi didn't say, after patting himself on the back was, how much his company was going to charge the Federal government to teach the other 2/3s of the United States. Congrats, at least you received facetime!!! Pre-school and home exposure, create the original introduction to computers. What was the rules for that original computer exposure? <None, it's just a great babysitter that teaches ABC's and typing. Two skills required in the workplace when they get older, however easy to teach when their younger. Most upper workplace businesses require initial and annual refresher Cybersecurity training. Don't pass it, no job! Abuse your access, no job! Plug an unauthorized Personal Electronic Devise (PED) into it, no job! Got a problem with it's access just ask the IT Department for help!!! Simple Rules, all learned from computer based training (CBT). Since Mr. Hadi Partovi as CEO of Code.org can directly challenge the educator's in this country to target their intended audience to create CBT for Pre-school to Post graduate use. Provide the tools, tell them the rules and judge the projects' output. Reward their efforts, What's left, create a Standard for US curricula over time? I'm not asking nor do I wish for more Federal regulations and big tech involvement. I believe we have enough. He's stating there's a problem forty years after computers were sold to the public and businesses to make their lives easier and more productive. Now hackers are paid to stop being mean and selling our data. Have a contest, the participants will learn more and more readily implement Cybersecurity at an early age. Invoke parental participation and possibly remove many negatives from the home. If the parents are never shown or told about the billions spent to prevent cyberattacks in the workplace, how much money is spent each year cleaning the malware off their own home computers. Financial pain can be a great influencer for acceptance and change. Cybersecurity's lack of understanding shouldn't be some company's windfall!! It's what we learn after, that's more expensive than what we learned first. Computers and cellphones are not a substitute for Daycare. Just my thoughts! Best of luck Mr. President!!
Empowering young people to be future-ready
3 年Totally agree Hadi, we teach kids as young as 8 about encryption and how to crack a Caesar's Cipher workshops and they really enjoyed it.
Absolutely! Well said Hadi Partovi ?? . Felicia Chua