Pixel's Password Puzzle - a Gaming Adventure

Guest Author: Steve Shepherd and Samantha Meghawry 

Book three, Pixel's Password Puzzle, starts with Seth in a panic. His account has been hacked, because his password was easy to guess and he'd used it everywhere. Pixel helps Fizz and Seth work out what went wrong, and what a safe username and a proper password actually look like, including the idea that your email for games shouldn't be the same one your parents use for everything else. 

None of this is new to anyone reading in this Community. It's the same advice every security awareness campaign gives working adults, over and over, usually because it still isn't sticking. What's different is the age we're pitching it at, and the reason it works better here: a young child has no bad habits to unlearn yet. Seth's hacked account is a story, not a policy document, and stories are what change behaviour before rules do.

There's a quieter lesson in this book too, about separation. Keep your gaming email away from your family's important accounts, so if one gets compromised, the damage doesn't spread. It's basic hygiene, the kind that underpins far larger systems many of you build and defend professionally. We're simply teaching the youngest version of it, years before anyone hands them a corporate laptop and a password policy they'll resent.

If nothing else, this book is a reminder that the fundamentals rarely change. Only the stakes do, as the accounts get bigger and the consequences of getting it wrong grow with them. Seth loses access to a game. An adult who never learned the same lesson can lose a great deal more.

Why we're featuring these books

We're pleased to have been chosen by Sam and Steve to support them in raising awareness of these creatively written and beautifully illustrated children's books across both our Channel and Buyer communities.  We think it's important to help more technology leaders, parents, teachers and schools discover practical books that can start important conversations before problems exist.