LITTLE CURRENT—Dave Patterson spent over 30 years on the digital barricades helping to protect vital resources from the predations of digital highwaymen. On January 21, from 11 am, the cyber security expert will be providing a seminar on internet security at the NEMI Public Library in Little Current.
“I started working in cyber security at the provincial and national level in the early 1990s,” said Mr. Patterson, who has offered the seminar in the past on behalf of The Expositor.
The cyber security mavin said that his seminars are focussed primarily on the elderly, prime victims in the new Wild West that is the information superhighway. Unlike the masked marauders lurking in the bushes beside rural roadways, the digital bandits preying on people today use entirely different and insidious weapons to ply their nefarious trade.
“Emotion,” said Mr. Patterson. “They prey on emotion and split second decisions.” Leveraging the love grandparents have for their grandchildren, the familial bond between mother and child, or the loneliness of the isolated, these insidious new bandits turn the best of human nature into cudgels. “They turn a person’s better instincts against them.”
But a person does not have to lie defenceless in the digital wilderness. Mr. Patterson said he will take people through some simple and effective actions that can help prevent being victimized online.
“How to determine if a website as safe, how to identify email fraud, there are some simple steps a person can take to avoid most of the worst that is out there,” he said.
Although he is well-versed in the ways of the secure socket layer (that’s SSL for short), Mr. Patterson has a wealth of experience in communicating with people who are not up on the latest techno-jargon, taking things down to everyday language and explanations.
Although the seminar on January 21 is aimed primarily at the digital bandit’s favourite victim, the elderly, the seminar is open to anyone and everyone.
More information on the free cyber security seminar and how to take part can be had by contacting Suzanne Norris at the NEMI Public Library at 705-368-2444.
