3-2 Know Who the Bad Guys Are

The Internet is a wonderful thing because it allows us to do so many things with the click of a mouse or swipe of an iPad screen. All the really complicated stuff happens behind the scenes. Someday you might be one of the behind the scenes people designing ways to make the user experience better. Most of us won't ever go behind the scenes but we will want the Internet to be fast, easy to use, and fun. No matter how much or little you use the Internet, there are things you should know about the bad guys who want to ruin your fun, steal your personal information, infect your files, spy on you as you browse the Internet, and create computer chaos for you and your family.

In this lesson you will learn about the precautions smart computer users take to protect themselves and those they love from the bad guys whose mission in life is to make trouble for Internet and computer users everywhere.

Activity 1

Watch the video titled Social, Smart, Secure. Open a Text Entry wiki. Copy and paste the three questions below into your wiki and write your answers based on the information provided in the video.

1. What are three ways cyber criminals can lure you or someone you know into a scam?

2. If everyone in the family shares a computer, why is important for everyone to follow the same safety rules?

3. What is the danger of clicking on pop-up ads?

4. How do cyber criminals lure people into their trap (scam, phishing, malware)?

5. What are three things you can do to be more safe?

 Social, Smart, Secure Links to an external site.

Activity 2

In this activity you will compare two videos that talk about the same thing: cyber warfare and hacking. Watch each video. When you are finished, go to your Text Entry wiki, scroll down and add the title Activity 2. Then copy and paste the questions below into the wiki. Finally, answer the questions using complete sentences.

1. Of the two videos, which do you think was more factual? (you can argue they were equally factual if you think they were).

2. Which video did you like best and why?

3. How did the presenters in each video try to persuade you to care about what they had to say?

4. Which video did a better job of explaining the information?

5. If you were going to make a video about a topic like this one, which approach would you use? Serious or more animated?

6. What's the bottom line message in each video? What are they warning us about?

7. What hacker group do both videos mention and what bad thing(s) did this group do?

8. Why should you care about what these videos have to say?

9. What are three things cyber criminals can do to individuals like you or your family that can be very costly and disruptive?

Video 1

Cyber crime Links to an external site.

Video 2

Cyber crime Links to an external site.