By Brooke Doss, Staff Writer
The seventh annual Kennesaw State University Cyber Security Awareness Day was held Oct. 21 at the Marietta campus and Oct. 22 at the Kennesaw campus by the University Information Technology Services.
KSU’s Cyber Security Awareness Day answers the call of the National Cyber Security Alliance by raising awareness of technology protection and encouraging students, faculty and the community to engage in security measures. Speakers at the event stressed the importance of remaining diligent in today’s threatening cyber landscape.
Interim Chief Information Security Officer, William Moore cites social media as the biggest cyber threat that currently exists, “because students—they’ve gotten better, but they’re still posting everything about themselves. And…phishing attempts are also based on gathering background information [from social media]. It’s everywhere you turn.”
Social media was just one of many topics covered during the Kennesaw campus event, which featured speakers Phil Agcaoili of Elavon, Inc.; Chuck Bloodworth of the United States Secret Service; Tyson Fowler of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Lisa Arnold and Michelle Johnson of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation; James Edge of Experis; and Martin Fisher of Northside Hospital.
Agcaoili’s presentation, entitled “So You Want to be in Cyber Security,” discussed that the demand for information security professionals is outpacing the supply from universities. He also highlighted the abundance of opportunities to be involved in information security regardless of what your major or degree is.
“You can take it from a nursing degree, you can take it from a psychology degree,” Moore said. He also noted that those majors, as well as several undeclared majors, were represented at the cyber security sessions in addition to technology-related majors.
“You can make it as long as you have the aptitude to go into information security,” Moore said. “There is such a demand.”
Bloodworth’s presentation focused on how the Secret Service addresses situations such as credit card and identity theft, and Fowler’s presentation added to that conversation by detailing current trends in cybercrime, such as phishing, ransomware, mule recruitment, and romance schemes.
Cybercrime today, according to Fowler, exploits the things we trust—email, websites, applications, business relationships and internal networks. The cyber world, he added, is just now getting to the “seatbelt” stage of protection, as the technology is fairly new. This is crucial because a new breach or vulnerability occurs almost every day.
“Information doesn’t go away,” Fowler said. “You’re on a server somewhere, and you’ve probably been compromised. At some point, everybody in this room is going to be. Somebody determined enough can compromise you no matter how much security you have.”
Chris Dehner, KSU Information Security Specialist and the organizer of the event, says that the most useful information for students to get out of the presentations is knowing what basic precautions they should be taking in securing their sensitive information online.
“We live in an age where everything is digital,” Dehner said. “Twenty years ago everything was in paper, and you could secure that in your wallet. And as long as you didn’t lose your wallet, you…were fine. But now everything is out there in ‘cyber space.’”
DaVel Walker, a senior history major at KSU, said her main purpose for attending the event was to learn about something that seems to be such a growing problem in our world. “Everything is going to electronic,” Walker said. “I was surprised at the last session where the gentleman mentioned that so many people put their birth certificate and their social security card and all those documents in their computer. I’m just shocked, but it makes sense.”
