“OK, cybersecurity is not as hard as people think it is, except for one thing that is hard. The thing that is not hard: if you don't know where the link came from, don't click the link! But sometimes, people try to trick you, and sometimes, other people you know that have clicked the wrong link are pulled in because they don't have control of their stuff any more. But if everybody knows how not to get tricked, then we protect each other.”
Nine-year-old Vertran Stepforth was breaking down things he had learned from his father, Major Thomas Stepforth Jr., in terms that young people could understand, and his cousin eleven-year-old Velma Trent and her best friends eleven-year-old Eleanor and ten-year-old Andrew Ludlow were taking notes as he was making his soon-to-go-viral video.
“Vertran explaining big concepts to kids is a big, big hit,” his grandfather, Thomas Stepforth Sr., said. “That is his great-grandfathers Theodore Stepforth with the everyday wisdom and Valiant Moore with the master teacher chops coming out of him.”
Mrs. Velma Stepforth, daughter of still-living Valiant Moore, laughed.
“And you know Big Pop-Pop Valiant got on the Internet just to big up his great-grandchildren in whatever they are doing that is good!”
“Yeah, he is just steering people to Tom's content and Vanna's facilitation of the Side Hustle program and Melvin's beats, and now his channel is growing too because people like to hear him talk about anything and everything!” Mr. Stepforth said. “You know what my father loved about your father, relative to that, Velma?”
“What?” Mrs. Stepforth said.
“My father said about your father, 'That ain't no teacher; that man be a whole natural-born salesman, but with pure heart. Valiant Moore can get you to believe anything and everything he be puttin' down with nary a lie and with no profit but seeing you profit. He'd be a zillionaire … but God kept him for better!”
“Wow – now that is a compliment!” Mrs. Stepforth said.
“And he said it in front of me, a fact I remembered later: there are things higher than being a billionaire, and my father was telling me something about your father that was really important. I know now.”
“Daddy Valiant always believed in you, too,” Mrs. Stepforth said. “He would call me and remind me, periodically, that you were going to figure it out.”
“I'm glad my dad didn't live long enough to see me messing up – probably would have picked up his stick at 110 years old and beat me down for letting you go over the pursuit of a mere billion dollars – and I'm glad your dad lived long enough to see me figure out what was important.”
“And now, we get to think of them and watch their little mini-me, just a-teachin' the people,” Mrs. Stepforth said, and gratefully slid into her husband's embrace as Vertran went on to talk about virus protection software and how to make the most of it.