Fortinet Offers Free Security Awareness Curriculum for All Primary and Secondary-Grade Students in the United Kingdom

 

Curriculum developed by teachers for teachers to provide more than 9 million students across U.K. with fundamental cybersecurity skills and Internet safety best practices

 

John Maddison, CMO and EVP of Product Strategy at Fortinet

“Fortinet is pleased to make its student curriculum available to more than 9 million students from primary and secondary schools across the U.K. to better help protect educational institutions that are susceptible to cyberattacks. By educating students on the importance of digital safety and best practices in the classroom, we want to help develop more cyber aware individuals from a young age so they can keep themselves and their connected networks safe.”

 

News Summary

Fortinet®, the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, today announced it has made its Security Awareness Curriculum available at no cost to primary and secondary schools across the United Kingdom. This is part of Fortinet’s initiatives to close the cyber skills gap, keep students cyber safe and foster critical cyber awareness globally. The student curriculum was first announced for schools in the United States tied to the White House’s Cyber Education and Workforce efforts.

 

The curriculum also builds on the free education-tailored security awareness service made available to more than 1 million education staff in nearly 30,000 schools across the U.K. announced earlier this year. This training for faculty and staff is also available for free in the United States, Canada and Australia. 

 

Rising Cyber Attacks Requires Increased Security Awareness

Phishing and malware methods are increasingly being used by cybercriminals targeting end-users to obtain personal and sensitive data and/or infiltrate into organisations’ networks. Fortinet’s research found that 91% of educational institutions experienced one or more breaches in 2022 and that 98% believe increased cybersecurity awareness for all education staff reduces cyberattacks. In addition to having the right security technology, cyber awareness is crucial for organisations to ensure a strong security posture. At the same time, roughly 4 million professionals are estimated to be needed globally to fill the cyber skills gap, further putting organisations, including education institutions, at risk.

 

To address these challenges, Fortinet is helping to develop the future workforce by offering the Security Awareness Curriculum, which instills fundamental cybersecurity skill sets from an early age and beyond.This initiative further advances Fortinet’s pledge to train 1 million people in cybersecurity globally by 2026.

 

Availability of Security Awarness Student Curriculum in the U.K.

The Security Awarness Curriculum was developed by former educators and reviewed by current teachers to incorporate core competencies into the classroom lessons, including creativity, critical thinking, computational thinking, communication, and collaboration. The curriculum for ages four to 18  also spans the following topics to cover both social emotional wellbeing as well as technical cybersecurity skills: 

 

• Online Presence
• Digital Safety
• Secure Privacy
• Ethical Integrity
• Digital Impact
• Cybersecurity Landscape
• Online Information

 

U.K. local school authorities and teachers interested in learning more about how to integrate this new Security Awareness Curriculum into classrooms can visit here.

 

Additional Resources

• Learn about Fortinet’s free cybersecurity training, which includes broad cyber awareness and product training. As part of the Fortinet Training Advancement Agenda (TAA), the Fortinet Training Institute also provides training and certification through the Network Security Expert (NSE) Certification, Academic Partner, and Education Outreach programs.
• Learn more
• Learn more about FortiGuard Labs threat intelligence and research and Outbreak Alerts, which provide timely steps to mitigate breaking cybersecurity attacks.
• Learn more about Fortinet’s FortiGuard Security Services portfolio.
• Read about how Fortinet customers are securing their organizations.
• Follow Fortinet on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Subscribe to Fortinet on our blog or YouTube.

 

About Fortinet

Fortinet is a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. Our mission is to secure people, devices, and data everywhere, and today we deliver cybersecurity everywhere you need it with the largest integrated portfolio of over 50 enterprise-grade products. Well over half a million customers trust Fortinet’s solutions, which are among the most deployed, most patented, and most validated in the industry. The Fortinet Training Institute, one of the largest and broadest training programs in the industry, is dedicated to making cybersecurity training and new career opportunities available to everyone. FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet’s elite threat intelligence and research organization, develops and utilizes leading-edge machine learning and AI technologies to provide customers with timely and consistently top-rated protection and actionable threat intelligence. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, and FortiGuard Labs.

 

 

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