Georgia College’s (GCSU) Continuing and Professional Education is hosting a class for Cybersecurity and Fraud Awareness.
The class is taught by Hance Patrick and is a 2-hour online workshop that will show attendees the techniques that scammers use to help identify and prevent loss from an online scam. Patrick will focus on real-world examples and go over the type of scams, how to identify them, and the threats they pose.
Patrick is a career information technology professional with over 42 years of experience in corporate and university settings. He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Jacksonville State University. While in “corporate America,” he developed highly secure systems for state police departments and secure point of sale systems for Zales and Hallmark Cards, secure patient information systems for many hospitals, including the Veterans Hospital Administration, and secure credit reporting and credit scoring systems at Equifax.
“During that time, I designed and wrote high security systems before there was a world-wide web. We were security centric,” said Patrick. “So, information and security has been my entire career since 1983.”
Since 2008, Patrick has worked at Georgia College as its information & security compliance officer. He provides information security directly by helping track down hackers, prevent hackers, and keep GCSU’s systems safe.
“As part of my role, I also teach a shorter course to faculty, staff, and students tailored to phishing and fraud,” said Patrick. “In talking with (GCSU) President Cathy Cox and a few others, we determined the broader community around us may also not understand how these scams work and the risks connected to them.”
The workshop will showcase how hackers tailor scams to their target, use a variety of scams, and how any form of web presence leaves risk to being targeted. In addition, Patrick will go over basic safety measures and identifiers for different types of scams. Content will be shown visually and not be lecture-oriented.
“You can expect to see what’s going on, what techniques cybercriminals are using, techniques to employ to identify these scams, and how to protect yourself. I will show attendees the details of how it's done without getting too deep,” said Patrick. “This course is set-up to present the information to you and encourage questions and conversation. I want attendees to engage.”
There are two workshops to choose between at different times. The workshop is $5 and will take place on Zoom. Attendees will receive a link to the workshop presentation via the email address used to register, at least one day prior to the workshop. Attendees may contact GCSU’s Registration Office at 478-445-5277 to pay over the phone or pay in person at the Registration Office located in Chappell Hall on the GCSU campus. Registration is also available online at cpe.gcsu.edu/gcsu/course/ course.aspx?C=1542&pc= 8&mc=27&sc=0.
“I’ve always been passionate about getting the message out and informing people how to defend themselves,” said Patrick. “People I know, my own family, have been tricked and affected by these scams and it has become increasingly more common.”
Patrick stated that he hopes to offer the course monthly and that he is happy to work with businesses, organizations, and the general community to teach the workshop in-person. If interested in offering this workshop in-person, email Patrick at hance.patrick@gcsu.edu.
“We can offer afternoon or evening classes and if you do not have a location to host the workshop, we can host it here at Georgia College,” said Patrick.