backBack to Nova Southeastern University
Center for Information Protection Education and Research (CIPhER)

NSU CIPhER Outreach

  1. Home
  2. Outreach

Cybersecurity Awareness Month Activities @ NSU

Proud Champion of the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) during October

Cybersecurity Awareness Month @ NSU

“October is the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month sponsored by U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

The College of Computing, AI, and Cybersecurity (CCAC) at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) is serving as Champion for the National Cybersecurity Alliance, a Washington DC-based organization funded by the DHS and recognized by the National Security Agency (NSA) and its federal partners as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C) in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) since 2005, in Cyber Research (CAE-R) since 2023, and the first in the nation to obtain NSA validation for CyberAI in 2025. Since October 2013, we have been conducting a wonderful annual outreach program to K-12 and seniors called "Cybersecurity Day @ NSU" to promote awareness about some do's and don’ts related to cybersecurity, as well as promote interest in cybersecurity careers in South Florida. This event was set in collaboration between NSU, federal law enforcement agencies, industry, local municipalities, Miami-Dade Public Schools, Broward County Public Schools, and NSU's USchool. To learn more about our annual "Cybersecurity Day @ NSU" event, see below. Since 2019, our outreach activities moved to include presentations during the month of October at middle and high schools, as well as senior centers around South Florida as well as invited cybersecurity professionals to inspire K-12 students to pursue cybersecurity careers.”

The 2025 Cybersecurity Awareness Month Activities @ NSU

During October 2025, we conducted several in-person and online sessions that included presentations, cybersecurity career discussions, and hands-on games (see below) at several high schools in South Florida including schools from Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) and NSU University School. We also had K-12 students attending the NSU MSEIP Cybersecurity Summer Program, which included presentations by Dr. Yair Levy presenting about Cybersecurity Careers and Nick Brugger (Recent graduate of our BS program) about cyber threats and mitigation approaches. We have also engaged over 105 senior citizens in South Florida during the Cybersecurity for Seniors event to further guide them om mitigations of cyber-attacks including social engineering and newly emerges Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled attacks like deepfake and voice cloning.

The 2024 Cybersecurity Awareness Month Activities @ NSU

In response to the rise of social engineering targeting senior citizens, we conducted a series of in-person and online sessions throughout October 2024. These events, held at various senior facilities across South Florida, featured presentations, cybersecurity discussions, and interactive games. In collaboration with the City of Fort Lauderdale and the Housing Authority of the City of Fort Lauderdale (HACFL), we focused on helping seniors identify and mitigate threats like SMS Phishing (SMiShing) through lectures and real-world simulations.

 

Moreover, we also coordinated a presentation to Nova High School (part of the Broward County Public Schools) and invited students to NSU Campus on cybersecurity careers at NSA by Ashley Greeley and Dr. Yair Levy to over 160 middle and high school students. These two presentations took place on October 2, 2024, one at the high school and another at NSU’s CORTEX Lab.

The 2023 Cybersecurity Awareness Month Activities @ NSU

During October 2023, we conducted several in-person and online sessions that included presentations, cybersecurity career discussions, and hands-on games (see below) at several high schools in South Florida including schools from Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) and NSU University School, such as:
  • Atlantic Technical High School
  • Cypress Bay High School
  • Ft. Lauderdale High School
  • Coconut Creek High School
  • Coconut Middle School
  • Nova High School
  • NSU University School
  • Walter Young Middle School
The in-class sessions this year were provided by students from NSU's College of Computing and Engineering who are members of the NSU Student-Led Cybersecurity Club - known as NSU_eHACKERs members.
 
Thank you to our student volunteers who have presented and/or helped coordinate these events:  
 
  • Rejoice Kumah
  • Karina Gilson
  • Marina Glik
  • Kadiya Tilak
  • Bhavya Shah

Links to cybersecurity games and activities:

    * Google Inerland
     * Kaspersky's Password Check
     * Phishing IQ test
     * PBS's NOVALabs's Cybersecurity Lab Game
     * CISA's Try Cyber - Cyber Work Role Discovery and Exploration Micro-Challenges

Links to some cybersecurity videos:
     * Cyber Threat - Social Engineering - Vishing
     * Cyber Threat - Free WiFi attack - hack to mobile devices
     * FBI - Protected Voices 

The 2022 Cybersecurity Awareness Month Activities @ NSU

During October 2022, we conducted several in-person sessions that included presentations, cybersecurity career discussions, and hands-on games (see below) at several high schools in South Florida including schools from Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) such as:
  • Charles W. Flanagan High School
  • Pioneer Middle School
  • Tequesta Trace Middle School
  • Ramblewood Middle School
  • Cooper City High School
  • Western High School
  • Crystal Lake Middle School
The in-class sessions this year were provided by students from NSU's College of Computing and Engineering who are members of the NSU Student-Led Cybersecurity Club - known as NSU_eHACKERs members.
 
Thank you to our student volunteers who have presented and/or helped coordinate these events: 
  • Felix Abraham
  • Diana Dancea
  • Triet Do
  • Rejoice Kumah
  • Juan Sebastian Rodriguez Baron
  • Oriana Ricci

Additionally, following a request from Broward County Public School (BCPS), we have developed the following flyers to serve as resources for 2022-2023 academic year related to cybersecurity in-class activities and were shared by the district STEM+CS Department with all BCPS schools.

The 2020 Cybersecurity Awareness Month Activities @ NSU

During October 2020, we conducted several online sessions that included presentations, cybersecurity career discussions, and hands-on games (see below) at several high-schools in South Florida including schools from Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) and Broward County Public Schools (BCPS). The live sessions this year were provided by students from NSU's College of Computing and Engineering who are members of the NSU Student-Led Cybersecurity Club - known as NSU_eHACKERs members.
 
Thank you to our student volunteers who have presented and/or helped coordinate these events:  
  • Ryan Harch
  • Gustavo Morales
  • Steven Gamatan
  • Manuel Diaz
  • Nicolas Brugger
  • Sahana Nanaiah
  • Karen Herisse
  • Yazeed Alqedairi

The 2019 Cybersecurity Awareness Month Activities @ NSU

Between October 23 and 29, we conducted presentations at several high-schools in Broward County as part of a partnership with the Broward County Public Schools, and an FBI Miami Field Office Special Agent who also joined.   

Click here for pictures from the 2019 high-schools events.

We would like to thank AGAIN our wonderful 2019 sponsor: 24By7Security for providing the support to help fund this event.

Additionally, on October 30, 2019, Rema Deo, HCISPP, CISM Managing Director, 24By7 Security, Inc. provided a TechTalk titled "Cybersecurity Hygienes" for NSU's students.

The 2018 Cybersecurity Day @ NSU (Tuesday, October 16, 2018)

We would like to thank AGAIN our wonderful 2018 sponsors: Volico Data Center and 24By7Security who provided the support to help fund this event.

2018 Event Schedule/Flyer
2018 Event Pictures

The 2017 Cybersecurity Day @ NSU (Thursday, October 19, 2017)

We would like to thank AGAIN our wonderful 2017 sponsors: Volico Enterprise Hosting and 24By7Security who provided the support to help fund this event.

2017 Event Schedule/Flyer

Additionally, from 2016 - 2017, we collaborated with the National Security Agency (NSA) and their partner, LifeJourney, to incorporate the NSA Day of Cyber, which was a free interactive, self-guided, and fully automated cyber education and career awareness experience that runs on the LifeJourney platform within our event (Cybersecurity Day @ NSU). The NSA Day of Cyber was a cloud-based platform that enables students to test-drive cyber careers and live a day in the life of six leading NSA cyber professionals.

The 2016 Cybersecurity Day @ NSU (Thursday, October 20, 2016)

We would like to thank the generous gifts from Volico Enterprise Hosting and 24By7Security that helped fund this 2016 event.

2016 Event Schedule/Flyer
Dr. Levy and Melissa Carlton's Top Cybersecurity Skills You Must Know - Session Slides

The 2015 Cybersecurity Day @ NSU (October 15, 2015)

We would like to thank the generous gifts from Volico Enterprise Hosting and 24By7Security that helped fund this 2015 event.

2015 Event Schedule/Flyer
Dr. Levy and Melissa Carlton's Classroom Activities (with collaboration content from StaySafeOnline.org - DHS sponsored site - Session 1 Slides)
Dr. Levy and Melissa Carlton's Top Cybersecurity Skills You Must Know - Session 2 Slides

The 2014 Cybersecurity Day @ NSU (October 14, 2014)

2014 Event Schedule/Flyer

 

The 2013 Cybersecurity Day @ NSU (October 17, 2013)

2013 Event Schedule/Flyer
Dr. Levy's Classroom Activities (with collaboration content from StaySafeOnline.org - DHS sponsored site - Session 1 Slides)
Dr. Clarke's Computer and Internet Security- Presentation Slides
Dr. Levy's Top 10 Cybersecurity Skills You Must Know - Session 2 Slides

Videos and Other Resources

Videos:

Related Links:

More related links via: StaySafeOnline.org's Links page

Updated Nov. 7, 2023