Cybersecurity: A Growing Industry and Major at ERAU

Posted on December 1, 2021 by Grace

Welcome back to the blog! Although a fairly new field, cybersecurity is a growing industry and major at ERAU Prescott. As a senior in the cyber department, I have been exposed to numerous different opportunities and experiences I have thoroughly enjoyed thus far. In my Riddle education, I have taken specialized courses in topics like Network Security, Database Security, Penetration Testing, and Operating Systems, to name a few. This program has opened doors where I can use these learned skills in real-world cyber scenarios, with internships at Northrop Grumman and the Army Cyber Futures Command, focusing on RMF compliance and vehicular network integrity respectively.

*This is an image of our distinguished Cyber Lab, a classroom every cyber student will step into at least once in their four years here.*

Participating in cyber organizations on campus has also provided an outlet in which I can practice and test my cyber skills in a recreational fashion with friends. I fondly recall my trip with the Cyber Defense Club to the RSA Conference in San Francisco in 2020, before COVID times. Not only did I get to see new cyber practices and innovations, but I also professionally networked and participated in workshops and CTFs.

That being said, the cyber clubs are a great resource for networking, learning, and meeting other students of similar interests. When asked about their involvement, students shared their favorite experiences in their respective cyber organizations:

William Noujaim

Ethical Hacking Club

What is your favorite part of leading the Ethical Hacking Club?

“As president of the Ethical Hacking Club, knowing that students will get to understand legal and ethical cybersecurity tools and techniques makes all the long hours of preparation worth it. Seeing students participate in competitions and succeed makes the club a success.”

What is the Ethical Hacking Club’s goal for its members?

“The Ethical Hacking Club is a community of individuals with one goal in mind, learning and performing ethical cybersecurity techniques through offensive and defensive practices. The Ethical Hacking Club’s motto is to encourage students to understand cybersecurity rules and practices. Knowing how to protect yourself online is the biggest takeaway from the EHC. Knowing what qualifies as legal and ethical practices in cybersecurity while having fun in competitions helps students of all majors learn best practices while understanding how to protect their personal data and understand how necessary cybersecurity is in the workforce.”

Mohammed Dalloul

Cyber Defense Club

What’s your favorite part of leading the Cyber Defense Club?

“My favorite part of leading Cyber Defense Club was planning and going on the club trip to the RSA conference in San Francisco, Ca, February 2020. We met a lot of industry leaders, built on teamwork, and friendships with fellow students during the trip. Overall, it was just one of the best experiences I’ve had in my college journey.”

What is the Cyber Defense Club’s goal for its members?

“Cyber Defense Club is a cyber club on campus that aims to help and guide students and prepare them for a future in the job market as well as work on capture the flag competitions. We at CDC help our students with whatever they need to succeed we have guest speakers, competitions, trips to conferences, and informative PowerPoints.”

Hannah Ohm

Women in Cybersecurity

What’s your favorite part of leading the Women in Cybersecurity Club?

“During our meetings we try to engage our members in activities that will deepen their knowledge of cybersecurity. This semester we not only participated in NCL, but we also received licenses for CyberStart recently. Being able to teach them and see their excitement is one of the best experiences anyone can ever have.”

What is the Women in Cybersecurity Club’s goal for its members?

“Our goal is to help support underrepresented students in cybersecurity and to foster a passion for cybersecurity within our members.”

As mentioned by these cyber student leaders, participating in said cyber clubs can help students understand how their class curriculum materializes in real-world environments. These organizations contribute to our technical knowledge and abilities, teaching cybersecurity topics not necessarily covered in the classroom. For example, to name a few, the WiCys team recently held an interactive Web Scraping exercise and is now working on a CyberAero project, diving into the crossover of cybersecurity and aerospace industries.

Applying for Scholarships

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Grace

Receiving scholarships is no easy task. Neither is applying for them. Yet, we, as students, do because the chance we could receive one is enough to motivate us to apply. I remember when I first toured Riddle, back in the days of 2018, and met a girl who applied to numerous scholarships and received so many that she didn’t have any student debt when she graduated. I aspired to be that girl, to have that perseverance.

*Proud logo of the College of Security and Intelligence (CSI).*

Of course, the ERAU Financial Aid Office offers many good options, but they are only the starting source. I’d say, about 80% of applying to scholarships is dependent on your self-determination. Some students receive competitive scholarships through their ROTC programs, if that is what you like to do. I am not one of those students. Initially, I looked for programs through the clubs I was active in. Sometimes, clubs and national organizations may be funding scholarships for their members. I found that there were quite a few in aviation clubs, although despite going to an aeronautical university, I knew little about. In Cyber Defense Club, a group closely related to my interests, I learned about a few opportunities supported by WiCYS and applied to those. Sadly, no luck.

Then, I moved online. Gauging my status as a college student from my metadata, advertisements were popping up with sources of scholarship search engines, like FastWeb and Scholarships.com. Having had applied to many scholarships prior, I was tired of asking my professors for glowing recommendation letters, answering essay questions, and writing slightly tweaked cover letters for each scholarship. The minimal requirements for the generic scholarships online were greatly appealing, so I applied to many. Yet again, I had no luck.

*This is the famous Cyber Lab, located in Room 127 of CSI Building.*

At this point, I had an Excel spreadsheet of over 50 scholarships I had applied to. Fatigued but still determined to not have student debt, I traversed on. This was around year two of college, so I had already started accumulating debt. I decided that I needed to look outside my previous methods. I turned within my College of Security and Intelligence and Department of Cyber Intelligence and Security specifically. Perfect timing! Dr. Sampigethaya, the Department Chair of Cyber Security, was just promoting applications to the Department of Defense Cyber Scholarship Program. In 2019, our Cyber Lab was designated a National Center of Academic Excellence for Cyber Defense Education, Cyber Defense Research, and Cyber Operations by the DHS and NSA, making ERAU students applicable for this program. Recognizing the magnitude of this opportunity, I jumped right into the application process. Five months later, I received a phone call, a scholarship, and a post-graduation job! In retrospect, the process of scholarship applying doesn’t seem that rigorous; however, when I was in it, it was horrible. The longer it takes to receive scholarships, the more debt you accumulate. If you have many disappointments like I did, don’t give up! Working hard now can only benefit your future self, and honestly your bank account.

The scholarship application process is challenging; if you need assistance on any step, a smart move would be contacting the Office of Prestigious Awards and Fellowships. This ERAU Office can support you in just about all aspects of the application process, from formatting your resume to requesting recommendation letters from professors. To contact them, please email uaawards@erau.edu.

Disclaimer: Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Security Agency.

CSI Students Attend the RSA Conference

Posted on April 10, 2020 by Student Spotlights

by Kevin Hood

My name is Kevin Hood and I am a Sophomore studying Cyber Intelligence and Security. During my time at Embry-Riddle, I have been managing the Cyber Lab, leading Cyber Defense Club, and working with the college to grow the degree program. Recently, Mohammed Dalloul and I organized a trip to bring a group of students to San Francisco. During the last week of February, the Women in Cybersecurity Club and the Cyber Defense Club visited San Francisco to tour Silicon Valley companies and attend the RSA Conference. The goal for the trip was to help the students practice networking, expose them to opportunities, and make Embry-Riddle well-known in the cybersecurity industry.

This year, club members attended and toured Google’s Headquarters, The Intel Museum, and the Plug and Play Tech Center. This allowed students to experience the Bay Area commodities and cybersecurity companies that exist. Google offers a unique work environment that ensures their employees live in a healthy work-life balance. Our students were surprised how Google provides free gourmet meals, freedom to pursue creative ideas, and collaborate with the best minds in the industry. The GooglePlex has 3D printing labs, employee gardens, and gyms available for employees to use during the workday. Google offers student internships in cybersecurity, and we talked to them about participating in our career fair that we offer for students in both the Fall and Spring semesters.

The second place we visited was the Intel campus in Silicon Valley. Kevin Dorland, a senior in the Cyber Intelligence and Security program, gave other students a tour of the Intel Museum. Kevin’s expertise and previous knowledge on Intel’s products was an inspiration for our students and taught them about the history of computers, old storage devices, Intel StrataFlash memory, microcontrollers, and the manufacturing behind Intel chipsets.

Silicon Valley is best known for the technology startups in the industry, and the College of Security and Intelligence Dean, Dr. Jon Haass, got us connected with the Plug and Play Tech Center. Plug and Play is an innovation platform that helps startup companies connect with the world’s largest tech giants. These connections help the startups gain support and investments to grow their products. Plug and Play partners with universities across the United States to support student startup ideas for startups when they graduate college.

During our tour of the facility, we learned about the process for how collaboration between the fortune 500 companies and startups can lead to the best innovation. Startups can present their ideas to company representatives and gain feedback on their ideas, which can lead to investments and company partnerships.

The next two days of the trip were spent attending the RSA Conference. The RSA Conference is the largest cybersecurity conference in the world, where students attend keynotes, networked with over 500 companies, and attend the RSAC College Day Sponsor Panel. During this event, we networked with the cybersecurity leaders from NBCUniversal, Walmart, Lockheed Martin, RSA, Intuit, Dell Technologies, and Microsoft about cybersecurity initiatives and ideas from students.

On Thursday afternoon, we met with Mike Gordon, Vice President & Chief Information Security Officer for Lockheed Martin to discuss how we could collaborate for more student projects and opportunities. Mike is an Embry-Riddle Alumni who provided support for ERAU’s 2019 CyberAero Competition. Lockheed Martin has set up special programs for our students including the Lockheed Martin Cybersecurity White Paper Competition where students wrote papers addressing multiple topics in cybersecurity to win prizes. Additionally, we met one of our recent Embry-Riddle graduates, Andrew Recker, who is working as a Cybersecurity Engineer at Lockheed Martin and was one of the founders of the Cyber Defense Club. Our goal is to continue to strengthen the relations with Lockheed Martin Cybersecurity organization for future opportunities, specialized internship programs, and project support.

*Embry-Riddle students with Mike Gordon, Vice President and CISO of Lockheed Martin (ERAU Class of 2000), and Andrew Recker, a Cybersecurity Engineer at Lockheed Martin (ERAU Class of 2019).*

Embry-Riddle’s Women in Cybersecurity Club (WiCys) attended the conference to gain connections and industry support across Cybersecurity domains. Currently, the ERAU WiCyS Club is the only WiCyS Club in Arizona, and they want to help other Universities start their own chapters. The club members networked with NBCUniversal to discuss how they can gain more support for projects and student opportunities. Additionally, they spoke with John Scimone, Senior Vice President & Chief Security Officer at Dell Security & Resiliency, regarding this topic because he is an Ambassador for the Executive Women’s Forum on Information Security, Risk Management & Privacy.

*Student Representatives from Embry-Riddle’s Women in Cybersecurity Club with Andrea Abell, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer of NBCUniversal, and NBCUniversal Recruiters.*

Students from both the WiCyS club and Cyber Defense Club attended the expo floor and industry talks on quantum cryptography, machine learning, anti-fraud, product security, and advanced threats facing the industry. The exposure for these students inspires them, as they can see first-hand the innovation and product ideas that these companies provide to the cybersecurity industry. These students discussed initiating startups, capstone ideas with representatives at the car hacking sandbox, and research projects that they could present in partnership with the sandbox partners at the following year at the conference.

The opportunity to tour Silicon Valley and attend the RSA Conference was invaluable to us. During the conference, Mohammed and I spent most of our time collaborating with the members of the Chief Information Security Officer Panel and companies on the expo floor. Gaining insight into the industry and learning how academia can collaborate with the companies was very inspiring. Also, Mohammed and I are very proud of the students for leaving a lasting impression of the university at the expo floor, getting recruited for international job opportunities, and learning how to solve the cybersecurity threats facing the world. Overall, the trip was life changing for all of us and a huge thank you to the College of Security and Intelligence, Student Government Association, Undergraduate Research Institute, Campus Facilities, Women in Cybersecurity, Dean Rhondie, and Leah Richwine for making the trip possible.