The Cybersecurity Education Program had the pleasure of hosting twenty-six high school students for our second annual Cyber Camp, June 12-14, 2023. Our goal for these three days was for each student to gain a solid understanding of the foundations for cybersecurity, to get a small taste of college life on Messiah’s campus, and to form friendships.
This year, we had several special guests join us from the cybersecurity industry. Ryan Donat, who works for Intuidex and is a Messiah Cybersecurity graduate, talked to us about web application pen testing. Evgueni Erchov, from Arete Advisors, spoke to us about ransomware incident response. We also had Messiah’s Director of IT Security, Allen Snook, give us a tour of the Security Operations Center, where our interns work each semester gaining real-world cybersecurity experience. Allen was joined by two of our cybersecurity students, Ben and Aiden, who spoke to us about their experience working in the SOC and guided us through several Graylog exercises to find network intruders. The Cyber Camp students loved getting this up-close exposure to working in a security ops environment.
Everyone seemed to really enjoy hearing from our guests, learning new concepts such as network mapping and intrusion detection, and working on picoCTF challenges. We also had a great time having lunch together each day as we navigated the wildness of summer camp season at Lottie Dining Hall! Students came away saying one of their favorite parts of the camp was meeting people and making new friends.
Thank you to the entire Cyber Camp staff for running the camp. Thanks also to the Events, Admissions, and Dining Services staff at Messiah for all they do to make camps like this happen each year.
A very special thanks goes to our students at Cyber Camp 2023 – you were what made this camp awesome. We enjoyed meeting you and look forward to seeing where your path leads you next!
We are already making plans for Cyber Camp 2024, so stay tuned to the blog and the Cyber Camp website for all the details once they’re available.
