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<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nThe ATC\u2019s CyberCamp is designed by the Air Force Association\u2019s (AFA) CyberPatriot, which is the National Youth Cyber Education Program. Participating students receive an AFA CyberCamp workbook that includes case studies and activities regarding ethics, cyberbullying and more.<\/p>\n
Additionally, there is no shortage of cybersecurity examples in the national news.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about Russia, about spearfishing \u2013 how they actually got into the systems of the Democratic Party,\u201d said Lavender. \u201cA lot of the kids had heard some things about it, so it was really good to have that discussion with them and get them to understand how it happened and how vulnerable the average user is to making decisions and not necessarily knowing what they are doing, like clicking a link in an email.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lavender added that students are thinking twice about the security of their own devices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about passwords, and one boy told me he changed his password and he hadn\u2019t thought about it in two years. A couple other students had their parents test their passwords. They\u2019re definitely taking those lessons home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matthew Pringle, a rising eighth-grader at Landstown Middle School, said the camp\u2019s lessons have \u201cmade me learn more about my computer in general and it makes me look twice on it \u2013 the dangers of it and how one can slip up and make everything go wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n He also sees value in having more knowledge about cybersecurity to support his career goal.<\/p>\n \u201cSince I want to be a computer engineer, cybersecurity is one thing to know about when I want to invent something,\u201d said Pringle.<\/p>\n Jordan Walck, a rising eighth-grader in the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program at Plaza Middle School, is considering applying to ATC to study cybersecurity and the camp is giving her a first look.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really fun and it\u2019s a real eye-opener,\u201d Walck said. \u201cLearning how to program certain things, how add stuff to a computer, how to protect your documents especially in a world where we\u2019re really moving on into technology and computers, it\u2019s just a real eye-opener for me.\u201d<\/p>\n She offers another unique point about her CyberCamp experience.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially since I\u2019m the only girl here, it\u2019s giving me a chance to prove to myself that I can do this since there aren\u2019t a lot of women in this field.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s a takeaway Jim Spruill, an ATC instructor and middle school CyberCamp co-leader, hopes all students will gain \u2013 they can do this and the workforce needs their talents.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope it sparks an interest, that\u2019s really the whole goal,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going back \u2013 we\u2019re going to continue marching forward in this cyber realm so we\u2019ve got to build up a workforce. We\u2019re reacting right now, so we\u2019re trying to be proactive and get more and more kids in this field.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n