Paul Duke STEM High School student Mihir Pai is the winner of the 2023 Cybersecurity Awareness Poster Contest in the high school category. Sponsored by the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) and the Georgia Leaders of Educational Technology (GLET), the contest was open to all public, private, and homeschooled Georgia students in grades K-12 during Cybersecurity Month, October 2023. The 11th-grader’s poster focused on mobile phone security. Four other winners were selected for the elementary and middle school categories as well as state school and home school categories.

     More than 116 eligible submissions from across Georgia were evaluated by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) Georgia Chapter judges. Each poster was judged on creativity and visual appeal, relevance to the theme, informational content, originality and uniqueness, and overall presentation.

Contestants in kindergarten through 8th grade were asked to consider the following questions when creating their poster:

• How should you treat others online?
• What information is safe to put on social media, and what should you keep private?
• How should you handle unwanted attention or strangers online?
• How can you select a strong password and keep it secure?
• How can you handle cyberbullying?

Contestants in grades 9-12 were asked:

• How can you preserve your online reputation or “digital footprint” on both social media and elsewhere on the Internet?
• How should you handle unwanted attention or strangers online?
• How can you select a strong password and keep it secure?
• Why is it important to keep your devices and software up to date?
• When is it safe to text and what information is safe to text?

Winners won a prize and a chance to meet State School Superintendent Richard Woods.