Students enlist in defending computers

Mason Hinkle wants to defend his government and his community.

His weapons of choice, though, aren’t lethal. He will use a keyboard and his mind.

Hinkle, 18, of Grove City, is a student at South-Western Career Academy. He and about 60 other students took part last month in a cyber-security exercise the Ohio National Guard plans to expand across Ohio as part of its mission to foster future generations of cyber-security experts.

“It was a new experience to try out real-world-experience

events without any repercussions,” Hinkle said. “I was interested in going into it for the hacking aspect of it.”

Hinkle wants to become a “penetration expert” who is employed by companies to try to hack their computer systems so they can identify and address weaknesses.

In December, Columbus State Community College hosted “Capture the Flag,” a hands-on event in which teams of students from area colleges and high schools tried to crack cyber defenses while defending their own computers.

“It teaches some real cyber-security-type skills,” said Maj. Gen. Mark Bartman, the Ohio National Guard’s adjutant general. “Understanding certain types of computer language. Understanding and scanning the network. Understanding coding. Hacking passwords. Forensics and reverse engineering.”

The Ohio National Guard leads the Ohio Cyber Collaboration Committee. Called OC3, it gathers more than 100 of Ohio’s education, military, private and public agencies to strengthen the state’s cyber-security infrastructure and train future cyber-defense workers. Gov. John Kasich initiated the OC3 program and touts it as a tool to attract and retain tech jobs in Ohio.

The “Capture the Flag” exercise came two months before Ohio plans to open a cyber “range” at the University of Cincinnati. Like a firing range, it will offer a safe space to practice computer combat. The Columbus State event was played on a leased cyber range — computer servers — where students learned and demonstrated skills to protect businesses and governments from attack.

Defenses to protect money, information and innovation need to expand quickly.

“If you have anything attached to the internet — a refrigerator, a device — you are a potential victim,” said Mark Bell, the cybersecurity outreach coordinator for the Ohio National Guard.

Although the servers that host the program are at the University of Cincinnati, they’re accessible online from anywhere. The intent is to use the Ohio Academic Resources Network’s high-speed internet service available to state colleges and high schools.

The plan is to have five identical cyber ranges in Ohio by mid-2019.

Because so many people have been hurt by cyber crimes, Bell said that everyone should be concerned about security. Last year, for example, hackers accessed Licking County government’s computer system and locked it up, demanding a ransom. Instead, Licking County spent about $31,000 for new computers, but its computer system was down for about two weeks.

One of the aims of Ohio’s cyber-security initiative is to have workers who can support small governments or businesses that might not have security expertise.

“If a business is compromised — and there are dozens and dozens of these — the amount of personal information hacked is staggering,” Bell said.

Cyber-defense jobs are in demand and pay well. Ohio has between 12,000 and 15,000 unfilled cyber-security jobs paying six figures annually, Bartman said, and the nation has 300,000.

That’s a reason officials want to start students as early as possible in learning cyber-defense skills.

“We are getting more kids interested in cyber, so we can get them involved in cyber,” Bell said.

Hinkle is interested and wants to be involved. Now, he and other classmates spend an hour a week teaching elementary-school students computer coding.

“My generation is probably better at looking at (cyber defense) from another perspective,” Hinkle said.

“It’s something that’s going to continue to grow.”