For the second year running, KPMG cyber security professionals from 45 countries around the world led classroom sessions aimed at educating young students about the importance of cyber security and internet risk. The sessions were held during October, which is known as International Cyber Security Awareness Month.

“Our cyber security professionals from around the world have put the ‘fun’ in cyber security fundamentals for students,” said Akhilesh Tuteja, who Co-Leads KPMG’s Global Cyber Security practice, along with Greg Bell. “The cyber security lessons provided a real opportunity for young students to engage with individuals who have deep skills and knowledge about issues facing this generation.”

Given the tremendous success of the inaugural KPMG Cyber Day initiative held on a single day last October, this year KPMG expanded the program to make every Friday in October a KPMG Cyber Day. This enabled KPMG to reach even more students with cyber lessons developed by KPMG’s Global Cyber Security Practice.

“Global CEOs we’ve interviewed for our latest CEO Outlook, and those I speak with recognize the critical role they play in their businesses being cyber secure,” said Bill Thomas, Global Chairman, KPMG. “Cyber security can no longer simply be left to the IT department, smart businesses know every employee has to be digital now and alert to the dangers. We all play a role in helping to ensure the business leaders of tomorrow are cyber safe. That’s why I’m tremendously proud of the program our people have delivered in classrooms all around the world.”

In a digital age where many young people are logging long hours of screen-time, it is critical that government bodies, parents, teachers, organizations and industry experts all work together to arm them with the information they need to stay safe online and offline.

- According to the Children’s Internet Study, conducted by The Centre for Cyber Safety and Education, 40 percent of kids have connected or chatted with a stranger online; with 53 percent of those kids having revealed their phone number to a stranger.

- Alarmingly, the same study found that those admit to chatting with strangers online, 11 percent met with a stranger and 6 percent revealed their home address

“Our global approach to citizenship prioritizes Quality Education and Lifelong Learning in line with the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Lord Dr. Michael Hastings, Global Head of Corporate Citizenship, KPMG. “The more we do today to collectively advance the competence and knowledge of today’s youth on cyber security, the better we can prepare these future leaders to meet tomorrow's challenges and be part of the confident digital future.”

This year cyber security professionals from KPMG in Kazakhstan and Central Asia have also taken part in the initiative of KPMG International and held five cyber security workshops for about five hundred schoolchildren in Almaty and Astana.

“I’m very glad that our cyber security group has been able to participate in KPMG’s initiative to hold workshops at Kazakhstan schools. In this digital age, it is very important for teenagers to know about safe on-line behavior. The number of threats in cyberspace is constantly growing, so we need to improve the information literacy among children of all ages. During training sessions, schoolchildren confirmed that they use multiple network services, games, social networks and they actively posed questions on how to protect themselves against hacking, recognize fraud or transfer their data safely,” commented Elena Gerasimenko, Senior Consultant, IT Consulting, KPMG in Kazakhstan and Central Asia.