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ITS Hosts GenCyber Event

ITS Hosts GenCyber Event

Academic Technologies and Innovation (ATI) a unit in the Division of ITS, collaborated with the CSUSB Cybersecurity Center to design and host GenCyber, a five-day camp for the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio, encompassing students from Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The yearly event hopes to inspire and expose the girls to the importance of cyber security while also teaching online safety behavior. The National Security Agency and the National Science Foundation funded the free event on June 17-21 at CSUSB. 

Equipped with the newest technology in virtual reality, the Girl Scouts at GenCyber were able to learn about cyber threats and how to respond to them. The Security Operations Center (SOC) was the heart of this activity, which was available for the Girl Scouts through the virtual reality headsets. 

Dustin Smith, Information Technology Consultant of ATI, worked on creating the SOC explained the project saying, “General secure operation centers are fortified locations that people run all of their internal systems and networking through, so that whenever they are being attacked by a cyber threat, such as hackers, they have the ability to respond to it immediately. We created a prototype version of that in virtual reality.” 

The Girl Scouts participated in other activities that included content on coding, drones, cyber forensics, internet safety and career pathways.  During the event, the girls were learning from CSUSB staff and working professionals in the cyber security industry.