INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Indian River State College (IRSC) is one of the distinguished organizations across the United States selected to participate in the second season of the Air Force Association’s (AFA) CyberCamp Program this summer. More than 30 students attended IRSC’s AFA CyberCamp last week to learn cyber safety, cyber ethics, and critical network security skills and tools. The camp was instructed by Steve Nicholson, Cybersecurity Manager for IRSC’s Advanced Technology Department.
The AFA CyberCamp culminated in an exciting team-based competition that put campers in the role of IT administrators tasked with finding and addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities in simulated network environments. The local AFA CyberCamp competition closely mimicked AFA’s annual CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, which enter its ninth season in October.
In addition to hosting one of the first AFA CyberCamps, IRSC will mentor local middle and high school teams in the CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition this fall.
The CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Education Program was created by the Air Force Association in 2009 to attract students to cybersecurity and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation’s future. In addition to the annual National Youth Cyber Defense Competition and the new AFA CyberCamp program, CyberPatriot has launched an Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative designed to introduce young students to online safety. To learn more about CyberPatriot, visit www.usycyberpatriot.org.
