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| The inaugural members of the Cyber Warrior Princess Club |
By Julia Doyle
The Cyber Warrior Princess Club gives girls a
new look on computers. When it comes to cybersecurity, they are your girls. So
boot up and get ready, it’s time to go through cyberspace.
Cyber Warrior Princesses is a brand new club, which just started this
year, and it was introduced at the open house. Some of the topics students explore include things like how to
stay safe on the internet and that not all hacking is bad.
Rebbeca Onuskanich is the volunteer who is teaching the Cyber Warrior Princess Club every Wednesday afternoon. When asked why she wanted to start the club, Rebecca explained, "I want to get more
girls more interested in Cybersecurity. With females
representing only 11% of Cybersecruity
positions, its important that we expose females to this field at a young age!"
The program is also geared towards career exploration. As Rebecca explained, "this club will have a huge impact! We currently have a pipeline issue in that there are over 209,000 open [Cybersecurity] positions in the US, and colleges and universities are just now providing a degrees in Cybersecurity. This leaves us with a tremendous shortage of qualified and trained individuals. When this happens, the best way to immediately fix the problem is through training."
Rebecca describes a promising future for students who go into Cybersecurity, claiming that, "with the appropriate training and certifications, high school students could get a job in Cybersecurity upon graduation and then go to college while working."
When you go online, you may think that whatever
you post or do can be deleted, and that's not true. When you put something
online you can't take it back. Someone can take a screenshot or forward it to
someone else before you can do anything. Some parents have software installed
on your computer, so they see what you websites you looked at and what you said
at the end of the month, even if you delete it.
Another lesson the club teaches students is that when they make a post on the
internet, anyone, anywhere can see it. Most people wouldn't go up to a stranger and say
“here is my address, my phone number, my school and pretty much all my personal
information,” so why do they do it on the
internet? This is what the Cyber Warrior Princess Club teaches students about. They
show you what it is okay to post, what's not okay, and more.
You might be surprised to hear not all hacking
is bad. I’ll explain why. When you hear the word “hacking,” most people think of
a person behind a computer screen stealing money online, hacking a game to win,
or taking your information, but that's only one definition. Have you ever
thought of yourself as hacking in everyday life? For example, when you take a
shortcut through a maze, that's hacking, only in a different way. When somebody
takes data for money without permission that is black hat hacking. That means
that they steal stuff to sell or get into things they are not supposed to do. When
people hack things to test security when they are hired by that company, they
are white hat hackers. They are looking for ways to make the data more secure.
Students in the club are excited about what they're learning. When I asked Eve what she could expect to do in the club, she said she wants to "learn about hacking." Another student, Chrys, explained that she hopes to go into Cybersecurity after she graduates, so this club is right up her alley!
