Online Cyber Security Discussion

Ready to start my first Twitter discussion for #FutureLearnAsks
As we kick off the next presentation of the Introduction to Cyber Security MOOC, I took part in an online discussion on the topic with Cory Doctorow and Andrew Smith on Twitter.  This was my first time leading one of these "Ask Me Anything" sessions, which was hosted by FutureLearn as part of a new initiative called #FutureLearnAsks.  Although at times I struggled to keep up with the speed of the conversation, it was a lot of fun to engage with a diverse group of people to talk about this important topic.

The discussion was seeded by a number of questions, ranging from "Is the state justified to monitor personal digital and telecommunications in the name of security?" to "What one tip would you give to people to better protect their cyber security?"  One key lesson learned about asking open ended questions like this was that if the answer is always going to start with "It depends ...", having a useful discussion on a platform like Twitter is going to be very challenging.  That said, participants on the discussion had some interesting views on all the questions raised.  It was also good to give learners on the MOOC an opportunity to interact directly with the academic team behind it's delivery and other experts.

We will definitely consider running more of these sessions in the future.  For now, a summary of the discussion has been captured on Storify and is embedded below:

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