Cybersecurity Blog

The Scouts BSA gathered on campus on two recent Saturdays to attend the Merit Badge College hosted by Messiah.  In our Cyber Center, scouts attended workshops to complete their  Digital Technology merit badge.   They reviewed and completed several of the requirements needed to earn their badge, including:

• the history of digital technology over time,
• the kinds of devices they imagined might be available when they are an adult,
• digital storage of text, sounds and pictures,
• lossy and lossless data compression,
• useful and programmable digital devices,
• similarities and differences between devices, computer networks, programs and apps,
• history and threat of malware,
• protecting their digital privacy,
• internet browsing security.

Director of Cybersecurity Education, Lynn Bigelow, was present to provide instruction on these topics along with a scout leader. An informational session, co-led by cybersecurity major Grace Taylor, was held for parents during lunch to talk about computer science and cybersecurity studies. Scouts spent the day completing nine of the tasks required to earn their merit badge in digital technology, and will finish the other eight on their own using the information they gained at the workshops.

It was a privilege to host the Scouts BSA and aid in their cybersecurity learning journey!

Messiah University’s Cyber Camp is back!

This year, students will take part in even more hands-on cyber labs, simulations, and interactive gaming scenarios. We’ll cover topics such as cryptography, online behavior and privacy, ethical hacking, social engineering, threat intelligence, using AI to defend the digital domain, and more. This day camp for high school students entering 9^th through 12^th grade is a great way to dive into the world of cybersecurity. Students will receive instruction directly from our cybersecurity faculty and local industry experts, all while getting to experience an introduction to what college life is all about. Space is limited, so register soon! Click image above for all the details ☝️

Watch a video of last year’s Cyber Camp:

The Cybersecurity Education Program hosted an event with the local Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) for computer science and cybersecurity majors. NAVSUP employees Kevin Davis and Camryn Behner came to speak with the students about internship and career opportunities at the NAVSUP in Mechanicsburg.

Students learned about how NAVSUP maintains the IT infrastructure in the Navy’s supply chains, applies cybersecurity fundamentals in everything from testing and building a product to reading and updating policies, and ensures logistics systems are operational. “All military failures revolve around logistics. Logistics are a huge factor in military success,” Kevin Davis explained.

Beverly Motich, Adjunct Instructor in Computer Information Science at Messiah, was also on hand to talk about her 30-year career in IT with NAVSUP.

We look forward to continued opportunities for our students to work with NAVSUP as interns and full-time employees!

The Cybersecurity Education Program was featured in the local news this past weekend. CBS 21 in Harrisburg interviewed students Carolina Hatch and Ray Truex, along with Assistant Professor Dr. David Bibighaus, about Messiah’s cybersecurity major.

The interview features how our program is helping students apply classroom knowledge to real-world situations. It also highlights our designation as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense, as well as the 3rd-place win our students achieved in January’s collegiate cyber defense competition.

Watch the 2.5-minute piece here >> https://local21news.com/news/local/local-school-messiah-university-trains-new-generation-of-cybersecurity-experts-in-central-pa

Dr. David Bibighaus, Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity at Messiah, spoke to Fox43 News last week after a cyberattack on February 4 caused parts of the Pennsylvania Courts website to be inaccessible.

Also quoted in the piece is Allan Jacks of Morefield, a local business technology company, who was one of our guest speakers at the recent Cybersecurity J-term held in the Cyber Center in January.

Watch the interview with Dr. Bibighaus here: https://www.fox43.com/article/news/local/cybersecurity-experts-break-down-cyberattack/521-a812f576-1c7e-433f-bd35-ae12c38f93ff

We are excited to announce our designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (NCAE-CD)! This designation is awarded to regionally accredited academic institutions offering cybersecurity-related degrees. Messiah’s Cybersecurity Education Program faculty and staff dedicated over two years of their collective effort to gather the evidence necessary to achieve this designation. We are looking forward to participating and contributing to the broader CAE community, collaborating with other institutions in pedagogy and technical expertise, and providing opportunities for scholarships and full-time employment for students with various agencies across the Department of Defense.

Read Messiah’s full press release here >> https://www.messiah.edu/news/article/431/messiah_university_named_a_national_center_of_academic_excellence_in_cyber_defense

President Kim S. Phipps also mentioned it in her recent President’s Campus Update >> https://campusupdate.messiah.edu/

The Cybersecurity Education Program had a great time hosting local high school students for a Cybersecurity J-Term week in early January! Students learned about IT and networking fundamentals, cryptography, ethical hacking, threat intelligence, and other cybersecurity topics through lectures, micro challenges, and hands-on exercises.

We had several guest speakers throughout the week, including a cyber threat intelligence professional from Mastercard, Messiah’s own cybersecurity professors, and both the president and the CISO of local network and IT services provider, Morefield. The week was topped off with a visit to our Security Operations Center led by Messiah’s Director of Information Security.

We thoroughly enjoyed spending the week with these students and we’re proud of how they applied themselves to learning new concepts each day. They worked together to solve problems and gained real-world cybersecurity experience that will set them up for success in any field.

If you know a high school student who is interested in diving into the world of cybersecurity, our summer Cyber Camp would be a great opportunity. This year’s Cyber Camp takes place June 10-13, and registration is now open!

This past Saturday (1/20), the Messiah University cybersecurity competition team participated in the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. The competition is an “inherit and defend” style event where teams are given a simulated business production environment and must harden the systems quickly before the attackers try to break in. In addition to securing systems the team functions as a legitimate business, responding to tasks from the C-suite and keeping all systems online. Throughout the competition the most impressive thing that Messiah’s teams did well was remain calm under pressure and communicated with each other well.

This was Messiah University’s second year participating in the competition. The senior team was comprised of Raymond Truex (captain), Grace Taylor, Aidan Hubley, Carolina Hatch, Brandan Snook, and Christopher Copeland. The first-year team was comprised of Eli Kalmbacher (captain), Austin King, Aiden Morris, and Ryan Scannell. Both teams were coached by Dr. David Bibighaus.

We are pleased to announce that the senior team placed 3^rd of 24 teams and will be advancing to compete in the regional competition in March. The team is excited to return to regionals for the second year in a row and will continue preparing for the next competition.

This past weekend, the Messiah University Cyber Competition Team participated in the National Cyber League team competition. The event, spanning from Friday afternoon to Sunday night, started off very strong with the team conquering numerous challenges and achieving 40% completion by the close of Friday. The team regrouped Saturday afternoon and was able to score some additional points and concluded the day with an impressive nearly 50% completion of all challenges.

As the challenges escalated in difficulty, Sunday proved to be very frustrating as the team spent numerous hours only to get one more challenge solved. The Messiah University team concluded the competition in 96th position out of 457 teams, placing in the top 25%. The team certainly learned a lot from participating in NCL for the first time.

Up next for the Cyber Competition Team is a focus on preparing for the main competition of the year, the Cyber Collegiate Defense Competition (CCDC). They are excited to be entering for the second time, and are working hard to prepare for it. Stay tuned for updates!

This post was written by Ray Truex, senior cybersecurity student.

Welcome to the final week of Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2023! We hope you enjoyed our posts on top ways to increase password security, your guide to MFA, and how to not give in to phishing. This week we’re talking about how software updates can help you and your family stay safe online. Read on and spread the word! 🙌

Think twice before putting off updates!

Many people might select “Remind me later” when they see an update alert. However, many software updates are created to fix security risks. Keeping software up to date is an easy way for us to stay safer online. To make updates even more convenient, turn on the automatic updates in the device’s or application’s security settings.

Keep Software Up to Date with Three Simple Steps

1. Watch for notifications
Our devices will usually notify us that we need to run updates. This includes our devices’ operating systems, programs and apps. It’s important to install ALL updates, especially for our web browsers and antivirus software.

2. Install updates as soon as possible
When notified about software updates, especially critical updates, we should be sure to install them as soon as possible. Malicious online criminals won’t wait, so we shouldn’t either!

3. Turn on automatic updates
With automatic updates, our devices will install updates without any input from us as soon as the update is available—Easy!
To turn on the automatic updates feature, look in the device’s settings, possibly under Software or Security. Search settings for “automatic updates” if needed.

Why It’s So Important to Update Promptly

👉If a criminal gets into our devices through a security flaw, they will look for sensitive information to exploit. Technology providers issue software updates to “patch” security weak spots as quickly as they can. If we don’t install them, they can’t protect us.
Software updates can also:
• Fix bugs
• Improve performance
• Add features that can enhance our experience

To round out this month’s focus, here’s a family hard at work putting into practice some of the tips we’ve been talking about: