The six winners of the computer security awareness video contest, as part of a national campaign to raise awareness of and increase computer security at colleges and universities, have been announced by the EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Computer and Network Security Task Force, the National Cyber Security Alliance, and ResearchChannel.

    Rodney Petersen, EDUCAUSE government relations officer and security task force coordinator, said: "We are encouraging colleges and universities to incorporate these student videos into their orientation programs for first-year students and ongoing security awareness campaigns for returning students. Since the largest group falling victim to identity theft is
men and women between the ages of 18 and 29, it is important for college and university students to understand the risks of being online and how to protect their personal information, computer, and campus networks."

    The video submissions on cyber security issues vary from a wide array of colleges and universities throughout the country. The short videos and public service announcements explain computer security problems and actions students should take to safeguard their computers and personal information.

Among the winners we can find:

    -- "Avoid Infection" by Joseph Ellis and Eric Collins, University of Delaware
    -- "Whoa, That's Awkward" by Evan Michals, Dartmouth College
    -- "When You Least Expect It" by Nolan Portillo, California State University - Bakersfield
    -- "Identity Theft for Criminals" by Scott Polcyn and Daniel Garcia, University of Central Florida
    -- "Out in the Open" by Mark Lancaster, Texas A&M University
    -- "A Short Film About Data Protection" by Chris Herbein, Guy Hershberger, Joseph Iacona, Joshua Bucknor, and Maurizio Bertone, Pennsylvania College of Technology

    Ron Teixeira, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, stated: "Educating the higher education community about the risks and precautions to take while using the Internet is an integral part of our mission to raise awareness on cyber security issues nationwide. It is for this reason that we proudly support the video contest because it not only reaches an essential audience of Internet users, but it also engages college students to promote understanding of online threats to their peers at a grassroots level."

    These scenes are now redy for free download from ResearchChannel at http://www.researchchannel.org/securityvideo2007/ for colleges, universities, and other organizations to broadcast, make available for downloading, and use in security orientations, sports halftime events or however they see fit.