Fortinet advances cybersecurity awareness in youth through ‘Cyber Safe’ children’s book donations

Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solutions, recently turned over more than 1,000 complimentary copies of the children’s book, ‘Cyber Safe: A Dog’s Guide to Internet Security,’ to select schools through the Department of Education (DepEd) Manila. As part of Fortinet’s commitment to closing the cyber skills gap, this donation further raises the youth’s cybersecurity awareness in time for back-to-school in the Philippines. 

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Co-authored by Renee Tarun, Fortinet’s Deputy CISO and Vice President of Information Security, the “Cyber Safe” book contains an easy-to-understand introduction to possible dangers for children connecting online for school, video games, streaming video shows, and more.

“Internet usage among children dramatically increased amid the pandemic, especially with the shift to remote and hybrid learning. This created additional threats that impact children’s privacy, safety, and security and because of children’s little understanding of these cyber threats, they may be more vulnerable targets for cybercriminals,” said Louie Castañeda, country manager of Fortinet Philippines.

“With Fortinet’s commitment to educating the global community on cyber safety as a way to address the industry’s skills gap, through the “Cyber Safe” children’s book, Fortinet is helping inculcate good cybersecurity hygiene among children by helping teach them how to behave and keep themselves safe online from an early age,” he added.

As part of its continued collaboration with DepEd Manila, Fortinet turned over 1,000 complimentary copies of the “Cyber Safe” book to P. Gomez Elementary School on August 18, a few days before the start of the new school year. 

In February, Fortinet turned over 100 and 300 copies of the “Cyber Safe” book to Ramon Avanceña High School and Aurora A. Quezon Elementary School, respectively.

Dr. Maria Magdalena M. Lim, CESOV, schools’ division superintendent, noted that DepEd Manila shares the same goal of ensuring cyber safety among school children. “We are grateful for this collaboration with Fortinet. We hope these children’s books donated to our schools here in Manila will help guide not only our students, their parents, and teachers so we can keep our children safe from cyber threats,” Lim said during the virtual turnover.  

Additionally, Fortinet will also provide free training through the Fortinet Training Institute’s Network Security Expert (NSE) Certification program, making the NSE 1 and 2 available to DepEd public school teachers. The NSE Certification program offers eight levels of certifications ranging from beginner to highly technical curriculum that helps develop and enhance foundational cybersecurity skills. All self-paced courses for the NSE Certification program are also offered free to anyone looking to acquire or enhance their skills in cybersecurity.

“The “Cyber Safe” book complements our award-winning training curriculum,” added Castañeda. “Our NSE 1 and NSE 2 are free self-paced cyber awareness courses for anyone interested of all ages. We hope that through our collaboration and this initiative with DepEd Manila, we can advance the cyber skillsets in children as well as teachers, creating a safer digital environment for all. 

To learn more about Fortinet, visit its website at https://www.fortinet.com.