CYBER COMPASS
The navigator to the golden middle way in the world of cybersecurity
Welcome to the unique course on cybersecurity!
Locking a door every morning. Always keeping your wallet safe. Managing life and liability insurance. We live our lives cautiously because everyone keeps thinking, “what if...”.
On the contrary, we throw caution away in the digital world. Maybe because it seems less real, perhaps for puzzling recommendations on cybersecurity, which are often contradictory. Or we are just used to relying on luck. But in the digital world, it is much easier for attackers to invade your privacy, steal your money, or download photos from your smartphone and block it. Taking advantage of the slightest negligence is simple – statistically, attacks happen every 39 seconds. But there is a solution: be at least as careful in cyberspace as you are in real life. To achieve this goal, we will show you the golden middle way, a set of understandable rules and guides, which do not require a great effort but still protect you from most risks.
Fifteen minutes of your time
The course consists of five lessons, each taking about 15 minutes to read. The lessons contain brief challenges as well as more time-demanding tutorials – you’ll see their estimated duration at the beginning next to this clock icon.
Lessons content and structure
You’ll find a content summary at the beginning of each lesson. We recommend navigating through the whole course in the prescribed order since many parts build upon the previous ones. The final extra lesson summarizes the most critical points, and you can always return to it should you be unsure in the future.
What will you learn in our course?
We chose practical information and prepared understandable guides, thanks to which you’ll act responsibly in cyberspace. Invest in yourself and gain knowledge that the university, employers, and you will truly appreciate and use. It’s up to you from now on!
How to use little precautions for building a strong defense?
Boundaries between your online and offline life are disappearing, so why would you settle for double standards when considering your security? The time has come for indulging your digital devices with the care they deserve. We will discuss antivirus software, back-ups, encryption, locking screens, and closing tabs in lesson one.
How properly are your treasures guarded?
Passwords are hiding your (online) identities, valuables, and information. In the second lesson, you will learn how to create a passphrase (the strongest, yet the easiest to remember). You will also discover more about the usefulness of the password manager, and you will explore safe ways of handling passwords to keep them only yours.
How not to get tricked in cyberspace?
Human beings are fallible, and that’s entirely all right. But in cyberspace, this is the most abused human characteristic. How to face manipulative techniques of so-called social engineering, how to manage your digital footprint, and how to seamlessly encrypt your data – all this is answered in the third lesson.
Do you make use of all the benefits that MUNI provides?
Masaryk University provides various services to its members, for which they would otherwise be paying a lot. In the fourth lesson, you’ll discover the secrets of Eduroam and learn how to connect securely even from a coffee house, how to send truly private messages, or how to share research data smartly.
How to handle a cybersecurity incident?
Cyber attacks have been growing in numbers and sophistication. Do not hesitate to report the slightest suspicion. In the fifth lesson, you will learn how to report a possible incident and discover who specifically can help you at MUNI. The user no longer needs to be the weakest link in a chain!
We are not saying goodbye because this is not the end
It is challenging to start thinking differently about so many things. Let’s recall what is at stake and what you have learned. The final lesson will remind you of the key points, and you can return to it whenever you’re unsure what’s best. As a bonus, it includes supplementary multimedia.
“The reading materials are very well written, and the narrative is noticeably engaging and relevant for beginners.”
Carnegie Mellon University
Authors
People from the whole Masaryk University contributed to making this course awesome. Don't expect tech geek language – the Cyber Compass was created not just by IT professionals, but also by designers, learning specialists, and copywriters.
Our goal was to be understandable to the broad academic community so that anyone can take the course: from first-year students through experienced professors to busy registrars. But that doesn’t change the fact that you can rely on the content. Contrary to random articles or recommendations (and equally often, fatal mistakes) posted online, you will always find up-to-date and verified information in this course. Every single hint, suggestion, or tutorial was reviewed multiple times by specialists from CSIRT-MU team (Institute of Computer Science), but also by external consultants.
Mgr. et Mgr. MARTIN HORÁK
Martin, the brain of the whole course with a knowledge base in cybersecurity, law, service design, and many other areas, focused not just on managing the course development, but also on technical content.
Mgr. et Mgr. HANA MATĚJKOVÁ
Hanka combined her knowledge of pedagogy, online learning design, and copywriting to create a user-friendly (readable, understandable, and neat) learning experience; therefore, she was responsible for creating the form of the Cybercompass.
Bc. PETRA MIKULOVÁ
Petra has been focusing on cyber-education for quite some time. Petra especially ensured that no tricky question was left unanswered and unexplained in a way appropriate to the needs of learners.
RNDr. JAN VYKOPAL, Ph.D.
Jan teaches cybersecurity and explores how to teach it better. In this course, he was the key contributor of expert knowledge – from choosing the type and structure of instructions to their usability for the general user.
PhDr. PAVLA VIZVÁRY, Ph.D.
Pavla is a specialist in cybersecurity and online education. She reflected the ideas of the team and led it to precise the content and form of the course.
CSIRT-MU SPECIALISTS
CSIRT-MU team members continuously improved the course, primarily its technical aspects. So, they guarantee the quality of the content that you can dive into in just a few seconds.
We wish you that acquiring self-confidence and awareness in cyberspace will bring you nothing but joy.
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