HackStudent

HackStudent is a cybersecurity education initiative offering workshops for high-school and middle-school age students. In 2018, kids connect to the Internet before they can talk, and tech is everywhere we go. We trust that our parents, teachers, and the makers of all our devices will protect us from the dangers that lurk all around, but time and experience shows that we are more vulnerable than ever. Unfortunately, cybersecurity is left out of school curriculums and most computer literacy programs. It is a paradox that our most vulnerable users - kids - learn no cybersecurity skills until later in life, and a gaping shortage in professionals is a testament to how far off the radar this topic is for most young people. This lack of basic cybersecurity education is trickling into the workforce, where the supply of cybersecurity professionals cannot keep up with the demands of our connected world, a gap that is continuing to widen year to year. Our social enterprise - HackStudent (https://toronto.hackstudent.com) - aims to change that by teaching teenagers key cybersecurity concepts at an age when their digital lives take off, and their energy, imagination, and creativity can give them an early start in this burgeoning field.