Cyber Warriors
Camp teaches area teens how to defend against online attacks, helps prepare them for college, jobs
After attending a camp over the summer, some local high school students are well on their way to defending themselves and the United States against cyberattacks.
At the end of July, the Southwest Technical Education District of Yuma (STEDY) hosted the Cybersecurity GenCyber Camp. The camp, which included 11 students, lasted for about a week and took place at the STEDY District Office.
During the camp, high school students from across Yuma County were taught “cuttingedge techniques which could be utilized for personal use or lead to opportunities which students may use to defend America from cyberattacks,” according to STEDY officials.
Hands-on activities students experienced included those involving human intelligence, Linux exposure, and Windows and wireless hack-
ing and defense. Students also learned how to build their own home lab and were given an introduction to networking. Additionally, the teens were given lessons on becoming a real hacker, according to Cyber Security Project Coordinator David Hernandez.
Though Hernandez said teaching students how to hack may be considered controversial, he believes the skill is vital for the students to learn when it comes to cybersecurity.
“The reason I teach that is the students need to understand not only that the bad guys can do it, but how the bad guys are going to do it, so they can defend themselves,” Hernandez said. “It’s like karate classes. They teach you how someone is gong to attack so you can understand how to defend yourself against it. It’s also the same thing with war. If you don’t understand your enemy, you are not going to have a really good chance of defeating them.”
Hernandez said the camp was offered for free through the National Security Agency and the National Science Foundation, which partnered with the Arizona Cyber Warfare Range.
“The goal here is not to make them experts in one week,” Hernandez noted. “It’s to expose them to the different things they could do in cybersecurity. We aim for them to find an interest in a specific category that we’ve taught them in cybersecurity.
“We expose them to a wide range of subjects from network forensics so they get to learn how law enforcement are performing forensics investigations to the basics of Linux, which is an operating system that most people don’t get exposed to, but it’s widely used in the corporate world,” he added.
Gila Ridge High School student Alyna Garcia, 17, said that the camp helped her meet other students with similar interests and better prepared her for her goal to get an associate degree in engineering. Garcia will attend Arizona Western College in the fall. Eventually, she hopes to transfer to the University of Arizona.
“I’ve learned so many things,” she said. “I’ve learned how we can protect our home computers and the jobs that are currently available for people that will secure peoples’ networks.”
Garcia’s peer, Andrew Sarransan, is also a 17-year-old Gila Ridge High School student who hopes to go into technology. He plans to go to college for robotic engineering and is applying to both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Arizona State University (ASU). During the camp, he felt it was valuable for students to learn about various resources and how to network and engage in hands-on activities.
“It definitely made students here more knowledgeable,” Sarransan said. “I think some of them were a little scared about how vulnerable some electronic systems are. With that being said, we learned how to protect ourselves, so it’s knowledge on both sides. Some of the things that were covered were intrusive because it’s cybersecurity.
“But, the whole point is that you have to know how to do it correctly in order to better protect yourself and help the community, because there are not many people who are taking classes such as this,” Sarransan added.
STEDY officials say the cybersecurity camp is aligned with the cyber criminology program offered at STEDY. Additionally, students attending the program during the
school year will earn college credit through Arizona Western College.
The programs are designed to enable students to begin employment in the related field once a certification has been earned.
For more information on STEDY programs and admissions, visit www.stedycte.org/admission/index.html or call (928) 3665884.