Stop, look, and think

Because cyber security is so critical these days, large organizations are reminding each and every associate to keep vigilant when it comes to handling our access to data among our computers, tablets and cell phones. Much like the community spread issues surrounding the pandemic, it has been vital to help prevent malware, ransomware and anyotherware from community spread within our collective electronic equipment.

So as a requirement of my employment, I watched with great interest a short video presentation explaining my responsibility to protect our collective computing activities.

Surprisingly, I was riveted to the message, although it was scarier than a psychological thriller (not my favorite genre). In fact, despite the way I teach students that fear tactics in advertising can sometimes shut down a consumer's attention and alienate the viewer, the video's techniques kept me carefully watching. After all, it's hard to ignore skull and crossbones ("the bad guys") moving through wires (the network) in order to kidnap information to sell it fraudulently to the highest bidder.

Yet despite the anxious approach, the entire message was simplified and cleansed to one quick phrase: "stop, look and think".

Let's face it — we are bombarded everyday with attempts to capture our personal information via phones, texts and emails. But if you had to summarize awareness in a fundamental way, it's really does come down to "stop, look and think".

So after the video was done and I was reminded not to share or use someone else's flash drive, I thought about "stop, look and think" beyond the confines of the digital landscape. Could these simple rules be effective in other areas of our world?

If more of the world's citizens applied "stop, look and think" before taking action I believe the world could be a better place. I suspect there could be more acceptance of differences, greater tolerance and fewer mistakes.

And then, when we were finished with the world, we could apply the credo to our smaller lives – putting oneself in someone else's place, providing help where it is needed, appreciating the strengths and weaknesses of being human.

Suddenly that "stop, look and think" which was applied to protect the fragility of data, wouldn't be such a bad idea for our day-to-day approach in our carefully constructed lives as well.

A contributing writer to the Herald since 2012, Lauren Lev is an East Meadow resident and a direct marketing/advertising executive who teaches marketing fundamentals as well as advertising and marketing communications courses at the Fashion Institute of Technology and SUNY Old Westbury.