With new technology emerging everyday, new doors are opening in social networking, business and industry. One group of students, though, is looking at the other side of the issue: cyber-security.

Freshmen Patrick Ryan, Kaushik Venkatesh, Daniel Rubin and Rishab Negi are participating in a contest, the High School Academic Business Competition, in which participants take on projects to educate their community about the dangers of cyber-crime and computer-security measures that should be taken as a result of the dangers that come with a technology-driven society.

The students were introduced to the competition through the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). About 50 club members took tests earlier this school year in business and accounting. The highest-scoring members applied to participate in the competition, and only four members were selected to represent Jefferson.

“The exam aspect of the competition appealed to all of us. We wanted to see how we compared against other kids our age that had the same passion for business,” Negi said. “We all know that cyber-security is a big concern for businesses today, so this was just a great opportunity for all of us.”

The team spent multiple lunches researching cyber-security and brainstorming ways to communicate their message to the community. They created a Facebook page detailed with information on cyber-security and posted an Intranet announcement to caution students to create more complex passwords and encourage them to take a quiz on phishing.

In addition, the members surveyed their friends and family through a poll on cyber-security. By analyzing the results, the team was able to create a presentation, which they will be giving when they compete at U.Va. today.

“We came up with a multi-faceted approach to informing the Jefferson population, each of us taking on individual subtasks,” Ryan said. “The plan was to integrate various forms of media into our awareness campaign in order to more effectively communicate with students.”

The group also created a document outlining their mission and advising the community on some precautions they should be taking. The document can be found here.