The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) marked National Cyber Security Awareness Month this past October with a slate of events and activities that stressed the importance of leadership, workforce skills, and strategies to help businesses and the public stay safe online.
Through our Facebook Live Interview series, sponsorship of the Cyber at the Crossroads Symposium, and participation in CyberMaryland 2017, UMUC cybersecurity experts shared insights into the following:
- How Skills-based Hacking Competitions Build Critical Thinking Skills. Ajay Gupta, chair of the Computer Networks and Cybersecurity program at UMUC, opened our Facebook Live series by discussing how these competitions build essential real-world, hands-on technical skills in data forensics, network defense, ethical hacking and other areas. Gupta suggested they also foster collaboration and develop the critical—and quick—thinking skills needed to complete complex, often unfamiliar tasks.
- What Managers and Leaders Need to Understand About Cybersecurity. Valorie King, chair of UMUC’s Cybersecurity Management and Policy program, followed Ajay’s session with a discussion about how business leaders need to understand cybersecurity at a level that makes it possible for them to effectively lead those entrusted with safeguarding their organization’s people, processes, and technologies.
- What’s the Difference Between Security and Cybersecurity? Finally, we concluded our Facebook Live series with Mansur Hasib, chair of UMUC’s Cybersecurity Technology program, who explained the critical distinctions between these two concepts and the role cybersecurity plays in the upper management and the healthcare space.
- Lessons Learned from Eligible Receiver 97. On Oct. 10, UMUC hosted the daylong “Cyber at the Crossroads” symposium, co-sponsored by the National Security Agency’s Cyber Center for Education and Innovation–Home of the National Cryptologic Museum. During the event, national cybersecurity leaders from government, military, industry and academia, explored in-depth the wide-ranging implications of the secret exercise—Eligible Receiver 97—that the Pentagon conducted 20 years ago to assess the vulnerabilities of Department of Defense computer networks.
- How to Prepare the Cyber Leaders of Tomorrow. UMUC sponsored the education track at the Cyber Maryland 2017 conference that convened on Oct. 11 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Emma Garrison-Alexander, vice dean of UMUC’s Cybersecurity & Information Assurance program, moderated the session, “Cybersecurity Leadership: Preparing the Cyber Warriors of the Future,” which highlighted best practices for achieving effective cybersecurity leadership across public and private organizations and industries, as well as local, state and federal government agencies.
To learn more about all of our activities during the month of October, read our complete coverage in the UMUC Global Media Center.
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