Cyberapashka - a Project on Cyber Literacy among the Adult Population

At the same time, as technology is rapidly developing and Internet users are growing, a significant part of the adult population of Kazakhstan remains vulnerable to cyber threats. Only in the first three months of this year, 12 thousand criminal offenses under the article “Fraud” were registered in the Unified Register of Pre–Trial Investigations of the Republic of Kazakhstan (URPTI), 42.2% of the total number were cases of Internet fraud. The number of victims of such crimes is 12.6 thousand people, where 6.3 thousand are people over 40 years old. Only last year , the State Technical Service registered 2,160 cases of phishing attacks.

Realizing the scale of this problem and realizing the need to increase the level of cyber literacy among the adult generation, techno-media bluescreen.kz together with QazCloud launched the Cyberapashka project.

“This is an initiative aimed at increasing cyber literacy among citizens over the age of 40. The project is based on the image of a “Cyberapashka” — a grandmother who explains in simple and understandable language the basic principles of self-defense against cyber attacks. We chose this image for a reason, as it symbolizes care and wisdom. Cyberapashka will help those who are facing digital threats for the first time, teach them how to use the Internet confidently and protect their data. We believe that this project will be an important step towards creating a safer digital world for millions of citizens”, - Kassym Yesergepov, the General Director of QazCloud, said.

In our project, we try to explain in a simple and understandable way the main rules of behavior on the Internet, how to behave with scammers, and most importantly, how to recognize that this is a scammer and not fall for his tricks.

“The project itself was born from the name. The word “APAshka” has a warm association with childhood, the wisdom of past years and trust. This is an image that people can turn to for advice and support. This approach allows to convey serious and important knowledge in an easy and accessible form, through the trust of the audience”, - Anna Melnikova, the CEO of bluescreen.kz, said.

Cyberapashka talks about such popular topics as phishing – fake emails, phishing calls from scammers, cyberbullying, false online shopping sites, fraudulent schemes with fake links and much more. All these topics are aimed at teaching the adult generation the basic rules of cyber hygiene and not to lose money.

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