GEEK SPEAK! Cyber Security at Lakeside High School-Hot Springs
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AST prides itself on preparing and producing students better equipped to handle the demands of the job market. Cyber security is a profession that requires proficiency in coding and problem-solving to protect our technical infrastructure from everything from annoying viruses to theft or loss of critical information. On a larger scale, the need for cyber security professionals nationally is increasing by the day. Individuals committed to providing cyber security require a certain amount of tenacity and the EAST students at Lakeside High School-Hot Springs have managed to demonstrate that tenacity and earn some bragging rights along the way. According to the official CyberPatriot website, CyberPatriot is the National Youth Cyber Education Program created by the Air Force Association (AFA) to inspire K-12 students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation’s future. At the core of the program is the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, the nation’s largest cyber defense competition that puts high school and middle school students in charge of securing virtual networks. Other
programs include AFA CyberCamps, an elementary school cyber education initiative, a children’s literature series, and CyberGenerations–a cyber safety initiative geared toward keeping senior citizens safe online. A team of EAST students known as the Downloadable Rams from EAST at Lakeside High School-Hot Springs performed well among their peers when competing in the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. These students, Evan Meyers, Adrian Erias, and Easton Russell, demonstrated their skills by finishing in the top 25% globally during that 2020-2021 school year; that’s 300th place out of 6,000 teams. Lakeside was labeled as a Platinum competitor during the competition deeming their coding and problem solving skills top tier. With multiple rounds in place to narrow down the brightest minds in the competition, Lakeside finished second in the state. The students received an “image” during each round of competition. These images contain entire operating systems. Through a program called VMWare, a virtualization and
>> For more information about the
competition visit USCyberPatriot.org
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