Cal State San Bernardino’s Cybersecurity Center is hosting a six-week virtual camp for high school girls from San Bernardino and Riverside counties to increase awareness and interest in cybersecurity education, while building diversity in the nation’s growing cyber workforce.

The GenCyber Camp, which runs through May 15, leads its participants through interactive cybersecurity courses and online career mentorship sessions. The GenCyber Camp is being held in partnership with the Cybersecurity Center and the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council (GSSGC).

The camp is designed to increase interest in cybersecurity through engaging and dynamic instruction, role-playing, visual aids, hands-on activities, and discussion groups. During the camp, girls practice various technical concepts including networking, systems security, penetration testing, cyber defense, and social engineering, while learning the importance of personal online safety, the dangers of information sharing, and how to be a good digital citizen.

Along with the virtual interactions, camp participants meet in live sessions using social distancing each Saturday to engage with CSUSB’s cyber clubs, the Cyber Intelligence and Security Organization (CISO), Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) student chapter, and federal/private industry workforce partners Google, Southwest Airlines and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

The camp is sponsored by the National Security Agency and National Science Foundation’s GenCyber program. GenCyber at CSUSB is a service-oriented outreach program seeking to provide education and career opportunities for girls in the Inland Empire.