Greetings everyone,
Sorry it has been so quiet the last 48 hours.  It is a rare that there isn't something to report in that time.    Perhaps this is the long quiet before a storm? 

As many of you realize, I work in Academia so a lot of my time is spent keeping your sons and daughters from doing stupid things on the nice brand new computers you bought them for graduation/birthday/Christmas. The rest of my spare time, I usually spend time trying to balance two seemingly opposite things:  securing our network and anything connected to it and at the same time  respect the need for our traditionally open network environment.   So anytime something comes out to help me in the security awareness world, then I am usually looking for ways to leverage it for the good of campus.

Last fall, the EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Computer and Network Security Task Force and the National Cyber Security Alliance had a video contest for students to come up with creative ways to raise awareness about security issues and recently announced the winners.  Their press release is located at http://www.educause.edu/PressReleases/1175&ID=1280  and the winner's videos are located at http://www.educause.edu/SecurityVideoContest/7103 .  It is very interesting to see security through the eyes of the younger generation.  And to think in a few short years, they will most likely be working for you or your company.  Most of the videos are good and have my creative juices going of how to better educate the students and the faculty alike.

I hope that in the corporate environment, maybe some of these may spawn better/newer security awareness ideas for educating your staff.  Perhaps some of the companies are large enough that you can create your own creative videos involving your specific security problems of the year.  Maybe you aren't that large, but I do encourage you to think outside the box for creative ways to raise awareness.

For those not ready do develop their own awareness program, SANS offers awareness training over the Internet for the corporate environment. It comes complete with motivational posters and on-line exams.

NOTE:  the security videos above do have a terms of use associated with them.  So, please do not steal them for your own commercial uses unless you have the permission of the owners.  However, if there is one you really like, send the owners a scholarship or offer them a job at your company after graduation.  You never know they might let you use it directly in your security training or record one especially for you.