RCC Cybersecurity Poster Winners Announced

Cybersecurity students are Robeson Community College are “keeping it reel” in an effort to educate the public about “phishing” attacks and other IT security risks.

Students were tasked with creating posters to raise awareness about cybersecurity, and once they were done, the campus community had an opportunity to vote on their favorite design.

Winning first place in the competition was the “Phishing. Don’t get hooked” poster created by Jillian Chavis, James Lucas, and John Maynor. The design featured a fisherman’s hook to illustrate just how easy it is to get tangled up on the web as hackers seek to steal your information through spear phishing, whaling, smishing, and vishing, all of which were explained in detail on the poster.

Each designer of the poster won a $25 gift card to Amazon.

“People don’t pay attention to what they click on,” John said about the inspiration behind the design. “It’s all about staying safe online.”

As John, Jillian, and James say, it only takes one wrong click.

“With cybersecurity, there are a lot of unknowns,” stated Jillian. “Educating others about cybersecurity enabled me to help people.”

As they say, education is powerful and that is what they hope comes from their poster design.

“Some people may not see the dangers that exist or even realize how vulnerable they are online,” said James. “Most of it is pretty simple for me because it’s stuff I’ve worked on before. I have been taking apart computers and putting them back together ever since I can remember.”

John, Jillian, and James say the poster project was really fun and was a great opportunity to work as a team and learn more about cybersecurity.

“Everyone came together with good ideas,” said John. “It all worked out really well.”

Coming in second place was a poster by Nicholas Pridgen. “Think before you click,” warns users about the dangers that loom over hyperlinks. The poster encourages everyone to create strong passwords, to keep software up-to-date, to use firewalls and antivirus software.

Third place was awarded to a poster by Nicholas Pridgen, Joey Williams, and En Rico Bellamy. Their poster asked people to “Be Cyber Smart” and provided many ways to keep information safe and to protect themselves and their loved ones from cybercriminals.

The poster project was started as part of the RCC CyberConnect Grant funded by the National Science Foundation – Advanced Technological Education (NSF-ATE) Grant #2100012.

“One of the objectives of the grant is to make the campus and community aware about cybersecurity issues,” said RCC Instructor Loretta Allen. “So, this was a fun way to bring awareness across the campus by having students from other programs, faculty, and staff vote on their favorite poster.”

“We hope that the poster project inspired our students to be excited about this topic and to continue to share the information and help raise awareness about cybersecurity,” said RCC Instructor Loretta Allen. “They all did such a great job, we are proud of all of them.”

To learn more about the Information Technology Cybersecurity and Network Management program at Robeson Community College, please contact Carolyn Watson, Business Technologies Chairperson, at 910-272-3457 or cwatson@robeson.edu.