Linda McCarthy was inspired to write the first edition of Own Your Space when the two teenagers in her house managed to destroy what she thought was a pretty darn secure home computer network. Linda was more inspired when she realized that Douglas and Eric weren’t looking to break things or even trying to impress her when they brought down her home network. They were just using the Internet the way normal teenagers do.
Since then, this book has become a collaborative project to provide free security learning to teens and families online. Contributors to the 2010 edition include Denise Weldon-Siviy, a mother of four, teacher, and writer. Other experts we are adding to the team include specialists in firewalls, networking, and wireless systems, as well as advanced Mac and Firefox users. Our design specialists and anime artists tie these concepts together in teen friendly form. We also have several teens on the project and are adding new teens continually to keep the project current and fresh. Without that teen involvement, this book and project would not exist.
For now, and for later. Like malware, that changes every day, we plan to update this online version as needed to keep protecting our readers. Computer security is a moving target. The eBook format allows us to run along side.
It was very important to us that this book be made available to ALL teens and families in need of security learning. For that reason, this book is made available for free online under the Creative Commons Licensing (creativecommons.org).
This project is made available through corporate sponsors and would not be possible without their support.
Who This Book Is For
This is a book for every teen and an essential resource for every parent and teacher. Especially though, this is a book for the computer savvy, keyboard-comfy teens who use the Net every day and want to know how to secure their systems, preserve their Net lifestyles, and protect their data. This book provides important details to keep those teens, their privacy, their identities, and their reputations safe in cyberspace.
In short, this book is for normal teenagers—like you. We realize that you understand quite a bit about computers, probably a lot more than your parents. We also know from our own teens where the gaps in your computer knowledge tend to fall. We wrote this book to address those gaps. Because we know your time is limited, we’ve kept this short and tried to focus on the important aspects of security. We also kept it interesting by including real examples and case studies from real teenagers just like you.
Even if you are a power user, this book is still for you! Sure, you’ll know a number of the details we cover. Still, we are willing to bet that you’ll find a number of details you weren’t aware of before. And you’ll certainly find a lot of detailed information you can share with a less enlightened friend, sibling, or parent.