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A private Catholic high-school in Connecticut has added cybersecurity to its summer program. Students are now receiving a crash course on how to defend against hacking, surveillance, and attacks on computer networks.
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He gave one to each student, explaining that the small size of these drives – a mere 125 Megabytes – was not intended for storing videos or photos. These were passkeys.
Ann Marie Jakubielski, the teacher of the “Intro to Cybersecurity”, summer class at the school, introduced Sparks to the use of passkeys to ward off online predators. The summer course is being offered for the first time by the school. According to a brochure, it teaches students to detect and protect against online security threats, including hacking and surveillance, as well as assaults on computer network.
Holly Cyr, Director of Programming at the school, said that the course was a welcome addition to their already vibrant summer program. Cyr said that whether or not students want to take the cybersecurity course next summer will depend upon their interest, but computer science classes in general are popular.
Sparks presented on Tuesday a condensed course he went through to earn his Navy certification in cybersecurity. He said that he provided information to the students to help them protect themselves against hackers and other predators who might try to steal their personal information.
Sparks gave out passkeys.
He explained to the class that “Passkeys” are long, complex passwords that you will never see. “They are on your device all the time, so there’s no need to worry about hackers getting them. You don’t know what they’re called, so you can never give them to anyone.”
He said that they can be physically connected to devices to unlock them.
Virtual private networks (VPNs) are another preventative measure.
Sparks said that it’s “basically a tunnel encrypted with your data.” When you connect to the VPN website, all your data is encrypted.
He told the students that artificial intelligence is a growing field, which he believes both has advantages and disadvantages.
“AI’s going be a lot more effective at creating phishing emails,” he said. “But it will also be better at helping find network vulnerabilities.”
Sparks, a former Navy officer who served for 20 years before leaving the service in 2002, is now a defense contractor. He rides submarines three to four times per year and ensures that their online systems are secure.
He said that submarines present different security challenges than other Navy ships, and not just those on land. Surface ships are required to connect to the Internet for crew morale during certain hours. Subs, on the other hand, are submerged and only come up twice a week for a half-hour to access internet.
He said submarines aren’t worried about hackers, but more about disgruntled insiders who may try to do “nefarious things.”
He said the latter type of cybersecurity was “hard to combat, but you just have to keep people happy and hope they don’t do bad things.”
Sparks’ primary goal in speaking to students was to increase their interest in cybersecurity.
He said, “Or maybe they’ll be educated enough to protect themselves against online predators.” “I don’t know all the answers but I will give them the ones I have and I hope they will expand on that.”
Alessandro Johnson Paulino, a seventh-grader, and Evan Frease, who describe themselves as frequent Internet users, said that Sparks taught them a lot, including “the ways in which hackers work.”
Johnson Paulino: “So we can then like reverse-engineer it into something we can protect ourselves.” “We’ve learned so much about online safety.”
2024 The Day, New London, Conn. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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