How to get young people (and everybody else) to care about cybersecurity

Gen Z does not stan cybersecurity, at least according to recent findings from the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA), which noted compromises among the demographic, along with a level of ah, who cares…

“There’s maybe some breach apathy, breach fatigue, learned helplessness: ‘The horse is already out of the barn; my data’s already out there. There’s nothing I can do about this,’” said Lisa Plaggemier, executive director of the NCA.

IT professionals face a cyber-apathy challenge with young people, but indifference crosses all generations, and administrators are looking for creative ways to encourage safe online habits and get people to take information security personally.

I need you to change your attitude. An annual report, conducted by the NCA in April of 2023, examined the online behaviors and attitudes of over 6,000 people across the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, and New Zealand. Gen Z (18- to 26-year-olds) made up 13% of the April survey, with 749 respondents.

Only 69% of Gen Z respondents agreed to the statement, “I feel that staying secure online is a priority” compared to 82% of millennials (ages 27 to 42) and 91% of baby boomers (59 to 77).

Participants in the survey disclosed a total of 2,047 “cybercrime incidents,” which included phishing, identity theft, and online dating scams. Under one-half (43%) of Gen Z participants reported a loss of data or money due from online schemers.

A short school day. As director of technology of Pennsylvania’s Marple Newtown School District and its six schools and administration center, Christopher Lee has to find ways to personalize cybersecurity advice to students who may not find online security all that important:

Lee uses examples to battle what he sees as a sense of indifference: Your Facebook can get hacked. Your vacation photos can tip people off that your house is empty. Employers will look at your social media. Anything you post on the internet doesn’t go away.

“One of the phrases I hear all the time is, ‘What’s the probability? Or what are the odds of it happening to me?’ I like to tell them: It could be happening to you, and you won’t even know,” Lee told IT Brew.

Both Lee and Plaggemier recommend offering any cybersecurity advice into small bits of information.

“Just the word ‘cyber’ can be off-putting. It has connotations that sound a little bit scary, that sound like you’re only talking to a STEM audience or a very technical audience,” said Plaggemier.

Kicking off Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October,, CISA embraced cyber-brevity and sent out a two-minute video with “four simple steps” to be safe online: Use strong passwords, think before clicking links, enable multi-factor authentication, and update software.

Perhaps Gen Z has more cyber awareness than the NCA survey suggests. Recent research from Cisco found that 42% of “younger consumers” (ages 18 to 34) are “privacy actives,” defined as people who care about privacy and have switched companies or providers over their data policies or data-sharing practices; the 42% figure steadily decreases with older generations that responded to the study.

In September 2023, the FBI announced an increase in imposter tech-support scams targeting senior citizens and their banking, savings, retirement, or investment accounts—things school students likely don’t have. What does Lee say to a student who might read that story and say…who cares?

“You may not have to physically have assets. But they can take control of your digital life, or start filling out applications or trying to gain credit with your information,” said Lee, someone who definitely cares.