On Line Safety Talk at Chestermere Middle School

CHESTERMERE – Cathy McDonald, a Constable from the Calgary Police Service, gave a presentation concerning ON LINE SAFETY to an interested group of parents and students on October 16 at the Chestermere Middle School. I think most people, including me, were astounded to find out the amount of privacy people unknowingly give away on the internet. Slide after slide in the presentation showed the group the many ways businesses and fraudsters can acquire and manipulate personal data and retrieve valuable information from unsuspecting and passive internet users. Rocky View School Trustee Bev Lapeare assembled a team of computer guru’s to demonstrate what the Rocky View Schools have in place to minimize devious actions at least within the school cyber system. Constable McDonald passed along plenty of advice about using the internet and using your smart phone outside of the school system as well. Her presentation hit on all facets of the internet including privacy settings in Facebook, Google searches and alerts, password protection, secondary email addresses and cyber bullying. Most crimes are financially based by stealing your identity. It is hard to believe how much valuable information was relayed in just the 1 hour presentation.
The next hour was dedicated to IT Team LaPeare brought together where the team put on demonstrations involving some of the software they have developed and use within the RV schools and even techniques to making a good video. It was an entertaining and informative evening that you wouldn’t want to miss if they put the presentation on again.
Here is one tip everyone should be aware of while banking or purchasing something on line. If you think you’re on a secure website, here’s how to tell: it isn’t enough to see the lock on the browsers address bar, make sure the website address starts with https: NOT just http: