cybersecurity
Forty-five high school girls are tackling programming, virtuous hacking and digital forensics this week at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering. The no-cost program is intended to woo more women into data security. Tandon's population of female students for the coming academic year is 40 percent, compared to a national average of 20 percent among engineering undergraduate programs in 2015, according to the American Society for Engineering Education.
Getting more women into the field requires getting more women involved in computer sciences at an earlier age and giving them opportunities similar to those Sargent had. And that takes more educational efforts geared toward showing girls the opportunities the field offers.
The U.S. Department of Energy said on Friday it is helping U.S. firms defend against a hacking campaign that targeted power companies including at least one nuclear plant, saying the attacks have not impacted electricity generation or the grid. News of the attacks surfaced a week ago when Reuters reported that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a June 28 alert to industrial firms, warning them of hacking targeting the nuclear, power and critical infrastructure sectors.
The US Navy’s Innovation department recently announced its interest in using Blockchain technology for their manufacturing systems. In the announcement, they specifically mentioned their interest to add Blockchain technology to their 3D printing in order to help securely transfer data through the manufacturing process.
The cybersecurity badge will be counted among the 18 new skills that Girl Scouts will be able to master beginning in the fall of 2018. The badges will be available to scouts in kindergarten through 12th grade, and will focus on different skills, depending on the age group: Younger scouts will learn about data privacy, cyberbullying, and Internet safety. Older scouts will focus on coding, ethical hacking, and firewalls.
This experiment was a crucial test for a budding technology called quantum cryptography, which uses quantum particles like photons to send secure information. But fragile quantum particles are notoriously difficult to transmit.
Technology continues to transform our personal and professional lives at an incredibly rapid pace. These changes are bringing tremendous opportunities for revolutionizing the ways in which we live and learn, as well as challenges related to areas such as data access and security, as the massive global ransomware attack in May 2017 recently demonstrated.
In response, anti-malware apps are broadening in scope. No solution will ever be able to thwart every possible threat, but we’ve come a long way from the simplicity of just maintaining a virus signature database. Heuristics have improved immensely, the most vulnerable avenues of attack are being reinforced, and fast-paced updates minimize damage - there’s a lot going on.
If students were exposed to STEM earlier in life, the nation’s cybersecurity could be improved, a U.S. Congresswoman said Thursday at a forum called “Defending The Web.” “We need to make sure our schools have all the tools that they need so that students are getting a great education in science, technology, engineering, math,” said U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Washington).
Here is a look at some of the places hit by the global cyberattack.