Nonprofit initiative raising awareness and educating young adults and teens on cybersecurity threats

Stellar Cyber, the world’s most open AI-driven security operations platform powered by Open XDR technology, announced that it secured National “Don’t Click It” Day on October 16, 2024, coinciding with National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. This initiative aims to educate and raise awareness for people of all ages on the dangers of hackers and cyber threats. “Don’t Click It, Pitch It,” the program that has inspired their National Day and is listed on the National Day site, helps to teach people what to do when they receive a suspicious email or text message and how to ensure that their sensitive information is not compromised in a scam.

“In the end, it is not about how much technology we can throw at cybercrime; a very big part of the issue is changing human habits, and we want to start with our youth,” said Steve Garrison, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Stellar Cyber and Founder of “Don’t Click It, Pitch It.” “Most cyber attacks happen because someone somewhere opened an email or clicked on a link they should not have. ‘Don’t Click It’ hones in on this habit and teaches children of all ages that if they do not know where something is from, throw it away. Curiosity killed the cat, but in this case, we hope to put a halt to curiosity and stop cybercrime from happening.”

Millions of phishing emails and fake alerts are sent out every day by hackers and criminals trying to gain access to bank accounts, financial records, and all other types of data. These methods can be extremely convincing to kids and young adults who have not been educated on the inherent risks of cyber attacks. Stellar Cyber has partnered with Minor League Baseball organizations, including the Ogden Raptors (Ogden, UT), the Oakland Ballers (Oakland, CA), and the Lake County Corn Dogs (Crown Point, IN), to help educate kids and teens about how to stay safe online.

Through “Don’t Click It, Pitch It,” Stellar Cyber has also brought its curriculum to thousands of students in Massachusetts and California, equipping these young people with the knowledge needed to identify and respond to phishing emails that contain bad links and attachments. If we can change human habits, we can help end cybercrime.

Stellar Cyber encourages people to celebrate National “Don’t Click It” Day by posting examples of scam texts and emails that they have received to help spread awareness of the various methods that hackers and criminals employ to attempt to access our data and infiltrate our lives. The more we expose the common tactics that these hackers use and educate the public on the ways to identify a potential threat, the safer our online community will be and the more secure our sensitive information will become.

What are our partners saying about Don’t Click It:

Judy Security CEO Raffaele Mautone said, “When we heard about the ‘Don’t Click it, Pitch It’ campaign, we were all in. Stellar Cyber is doing a great thing to help educate our children about being careful not to click on something from someone they do not know.”

Blackswan Cybersecurity’s CEO Mike Saylor, Ph.D. said, “Stellar Cyber understands the need to educate people of any age about being safe online, but starting with our children is brilliant. Blackswan stands behind ‘Don’t Click It’ and is thrilled to see the nonprofit have a national day to bring even more awareness to the cause.”

CyFlare CEO Joe Morin said, “Business email compromise and phishing are the second largest attack vectors crippling organizations and dramatically impacting individuals, yet 100% of these attacks can be prevented if users are educated not to click. Teaching children cybersecurity awareness takes only a small amount of time but creates a lasting, impactful defense for the future.”

About Stellar Cyber

Stellar Cyber’s Automation-driven Security Operations Platform, including NG-SIEM and NDR and powered by Open XDR, delivers comprehensive, unified cybersecurity without complexity. It empowers lean security teams of any skill level to successfully secure their environments. As part of this unified platform, Stellar Cyber’s Multi-Layer AI™ enables enterprises, MSSPs, and MSPs to reduce risk with early and precise threat identification and remediation while slashing costs, retaining investments in existing tools, and improving analyst productivity. This results in a 20X improvement in MTTD and an 8X improvement in MTTR. The company is based in Silicon Valley. For more information, visit https://stellarcyber.ai

About Don’t Click It, Pitch It!

Don’t Click It, Pitch It! aims to educate young adults and teens on cybersecurity, focusing on identifying and preventing cyberattacks like phishing and identity theft. By 2030, it seeks to teach over five million young people how to protect their personal information. The organization emphasizes safety, privacy, and confidence in digital interactions through educational programs and activities run by volunteers, with proceeds supporting its mission. For more information, visit Don’t Click It, Pitch It

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