USU Students Pop into Hot Tub to Fight Cybercrime

Kyra Sorensen probably never suspected she would one day end up putting on a bathing suit and cooking herself in hopes of fighting cybercrime but that’s exactly what she did last semester.

Sorensen was in a Utah State University class called “Acting For The Camera,” and several students in that class took it upon themselves to help USU’s office of Information Technology encourage people to become “internet skeptics.” The class made three short films, now showing on digital screens across campus, each dramatizing, in creative and humorous ways, how people can be more careful online.

Sorensen’s idea was to show a happy woman slipping into her own private hot tub only to be surprised when, one-by-one, a number of unwelcome visitors suddenly appear next to her. The idea was to drive home the point that when people use unsecured public networks others can sometimes tap into their communications and cause them all sorts of expensive headaches.

What might play out on screen in 30 seconds, however, can take hours to film and in Sorensen’s case that meant that she ended up in a hot tub far longer than is recommended and when she finally got out she nearly passed out.

“At first it was quite relaxing to be all kicked back in a hot tub,” she said, “but after an hour or so I felt like I was the main flavoring in a big pot of stew.”

Richie Call, an assistant professor and the teacher of the class, said that Kyra, who is a senior majoring in theater arts, never complained.

“Poor Kyra was probably feeling the effects of it,” Call said, “but she didn’t want to slow down the process.”

Each of the videos came with its own challenges. One required Kelly McGaw, a senior majoring in theater arts, to do some rocky climbing in Logan Canyon, armed with a sword and dressed in medieval garb, to communicate the idea that people shouldn’t take shortcuts when creating their passwords. Another that featured Kenny Bordieri, a senior majoring in theater arts, posting underwear on the classified board in the Taggart Student Center, was aimed at reminding students to use some discretion in the kinds of things they share and post online. The students, who also made videos for Aggie Blue Bikes, said they enjoyed the process and ended up with some footage that they can use to showcase their work when they go looking for acting jobs.

Bob Bayn, a security analyst with the office of Information Technology, spends much of his job thwarting potential phishing attempts or other cyber threats that might victimize people at the university. Bayn said that he gave the class a short list of messages that he wanted to get out and the students ran with it from there, coming up with their own ideas for the videos. They called Bob a producer because he gave them feedback as the project progressed and guidance on what he hoped to see in the final product.

“I found the process to be just fun and interesting,” he said. “It was great to watch their creativity at work, as well as to see the final films. Their videos help us find new, effective ways to communicate important messages that we want to get out to the USU community.”

Scott Zaborski, a senior, majoring in theater arts, said the experience taught the students not only about acting but about the lighting and sound issues that must be dealt with on location.

“We are not only learning in the classroom,” he said. “We are learning on location. And we are gaining experience so that by the time we get in front of the camera, where it’s a paid gig, out of college, we are already ahead of the game knowing what we are going to do and how everything works.”

Call said the project offers students practical experience and unexpected developments that happen during filming often give the actors a funny story or two to tell when they are done. He said they filmed the hot tub scene at a faculty member’s house and the professor’s husband came home and was surprised to find a movie shoot going on in his back yard.

“In the middle of the filming the husband came home and looked out in the back yard to find me and a cameraman surrounded by college girls in their bikinis,” he said. “It was a little bit strange. It’s not a regular day at the office.”

The other students featured in the films include Jennifer Grzybowski, Savannah Hubbard, Allyson Hankins and Shannon Peters. All of them are seniors majoring in theater arts at USU.

Related links:

USU Theatre Arts Department

USU Information Technology

Writer and contact: Steve Eaton, IT communications, 797-0059, steve.eaton@usu.edu