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Cyber Street Smart on Campus

College students are especially at risk of cyber crime because they often share computers or use unsecured laptops and wireless networks. They are also the most common users of social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, and they tend to have bad online security habits (78% rarely or never change their passwords3).

Cyber Street Smart encourages college students to think before they click by promoting common sense forethought in their online dealings. The project uses campus media, events, classroom presentations, and written materials to teach students to be smart online and direct them to the CyberStreetSmart.org Web site where they learn to recognize Internet scams and avoid risky online behaviors.

Cyber Street Smart also periodically hosts 21st Century Cons, a workshop that draw on stories of infamous con artists and hoaxes from movies, literature and history to teach students how to protect their identities and avoid online scams and frauds.

  1. Internet Crime Complaint Center, Internet Crime Report for New York, 2006.
  2. According to the Federal Trade Commission, victims under the age of 29 constituted the largest demographic chunk (31%) of all the identity theft cases reported in New York State in 2005.
  3. CompUSA TechInsights, July 2006.
Cyber Street Smart on Campus
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