Digital security has become an urgent topic in the United States, and the numbers make that crystal clear.
In 2025 alone, North Carolina recorded $15.6 million in losses caused by cybercrimes involving artificial intelligence, according to data from the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3.
That is a staggering amount.
But in the middle of this alarming landscape, a nonprofit in Durham decided not to sit around waiting for things to get worse.
Digital Durham, in partnership with the city of Durham, took concrete action: bringing knowledge directly to the community, because understanding how technology works can be the difference between falling for a scam and protecting yourself from one. 🛡️
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When AI becomes a weapon in cybercrime
Artificial intelligence has changed a lot about the way we communicate, work, and consume content. But like any powerful tool, it can also be used with bad intentions. Cybercrimes have evolved from emails riddled with typos into sophisticated scams that are nearly impossible to spot at first glance. Voice deepfakes that mimic family members asking for money, AI-generated messages that copy real people’s writing style, and fake websites built in seconds with a completely legitimate appearance are just a few examples of what is happening right now, not in some distant future.
The IC3 report makes it clear that the problem has already reached scale. The $15.6 million recorded in North Carolina in 2025 is not an isolated case or a statistical anomaly. It is part of a growing national trend where criminals are using affordable and accessible AI tools to scale attacks that previously required far more technical effort. What used to take days to pull off can now be done in minutes, with a high degree of personalization and persuasion.
And that is exactly where the most silent danger lives: most people still associate digital scams with that Nigerian prince asking for help by email. The reality of 2025 looks very different. Attacks come in the form of a phone call from your health insurance provider, a voice message from your boss requesting an urgent wire transfer, or even a video of a relative in distress. Artificial intelligence has turned the impossible into routine, and that demands society’s response to evolve at the same speed. 🤖
The community’s answer: education as a shield
Digital Durham understood something that many cybersecurity initiatives still overlook: there is no point in creating protective technology if people do not know how to use it, or worse, do not even realize they need it. The partnership with the city of Durham was born from exactly that point, the need to translate technical information into accessible language for everyday residents, not just IT professionals. That is how the Digital Empowerment Day came to life, the first event of its kind hosted by the organization, with the goal of building people’s confidence in using AI while spotlighting the growing risks of a technology that evolves way too fast.
As Laura Fogle, founder of Digital Durham, summed it up, the core message is about being well-informed rather than burying your head in the sand and saying AI is just a scary thing. That philosophy drives the entire approach of the event, which brought together workshops for all ages and skill levels, along with speakers who specialize in the subject. The idea is straightforward: the more people understand the technology, the fewer people will become its victims.
These workshops cover everything from the most basic concepts, like creating strong passwords and recognizing suspicious links, to more advanced topics, like identifying content generated by artificial intelligence and understanding how modern social engineering scams work. The in-person format was a key strategic choice because it allows participants to ask real questions, share situations they have already experienced, and learn from each other’s mistakes and experiences. That creates a learning cycle far richer than any tip sheet sent out by email.
Real stories from people who attended
One of the most impactful moments in this kind of initiative comes from the personal stories of participants. Kim Bynum, one of the attendees at the event, shared that she wants to help keep her elderly mother up to date with technology. According to her, her mom knows how to interact with her phone, open apps, and handle basic tasks, but sometimes runs into confusing situations, like something that keeps popping up on her screen. In those moments, her daughter’s advice is simple: do not touch it.
That story perfectly illustrates why community-driven initiatives matter so much. Often, the most vulnerable link in a family’s security is the person who has had the least exposure to technology throughout their life. It is not about a lack of intelligence but a lack of familiarity with new attack patterns. Teaching these individuals to recognize warning signs literally protects them from losing their life savings to scammers.
Among the event’s speakers was Kae David, a professional with over a decade of experience in cybersecurity. She explained to the audience that when people understand how the technology actually works, meaning machines capable of thinking like humans and mimicking their actions, everything changes. In her words, it is from that understanding that you begin to ask the right questions to keep protecting yourself and also start contributing to the conversation. That is the essence of digital literacy: turning someone who was once just a potential victim into an active participant in their own defense. 💡
Why in-person workshops still make a difference
In a world packed with online tutorials, holding in-person workshops on digital security might seem redundant. But the reality is that the populations most vulnerable to cybercrime, such as seniors, people with low incomes, and communities with limited access to quality internet, are precisely the ones who consume the least digital content. They are not finding educational videos on YouTube or reading tech blogs. The content needs to go to them, and that is exactly what Digital Durham is doing.
On top of that, the in-person setting allows a level of personalization that digital formats rarely achieve. An instructor in a classroom can notice when someone does not grasp a concept, adjust the explanation on the spot, and use examples that make sense for that specific reality. A Durham resident who received a suspicious phone call last week can bring that real case into the discussion and get an immediate breakdown of what happened. That kind of exchange is irreplaceable and produces learning that is far more solid and lasting than passively consuming content.
The workshops also serve as a meeting point for the community to openly discuss the fear and distrust many people feel toward technology. It is not uncommon to find people who avoid using banking apps, shopping online, or even replying to messages out of fear of falling for a scam. While understandable, that distance can be harmful in an increasingly digital world. The mission of the workshops is precisely to strike the right balance: teaching people to navigate with confidence and caution, without creating paranoia but without naivety either. ⚖️
What this initiative reveals about the future of digital security
The work of Digital Durham points to something that digital security experts have been discussing for years: protection against cybercrime needs to be treated as a matter of literacy, not just technology. Just as we teach people to read, write, and do math, we need to teach them to navigate the digital environment safely. And with artificial intelligence accelerating how sophisticated attacks have become, that need is even more urgent and can no longer be put off.
Community-driven initiatives like this one also show that the private sector, nonprofits, and local governments need to work together to tackle this challenge. None of these parties can solve the problem alone. Tech companies can build better scam detection tools, but if people do not know how to use them or are not even aware they exist, the impact is limited. Governments can pass stricter laws against cybercrime, but enforcement and prevention depend on an informed and engaged community. It is the combination of these forces that truly moves the needle.
The model adopted in Durham can, and should, serve as inspiration for other cities and regions. The formula is not complex: identify the most vulnerable populations, create accessible content about digital security, bring that content to where people already are, and create space for the community to learn together using real cases and human language. In a landscape where artificial intelligence is being used to scale increasingly convincing scams, the most powerful response we have is, ironically, very analog: well-informed people talking to other people. 🤝
