Today, the campers went to the FBI office for a tour. Later, they came back for lunch. After lunch, the campers were talked to about phishing by the company PhishMe and how to not get “phished”. After that, the last speaker came, Sam Robinson, and talked about digital forensics. He also works for Charter Communications (Formerly Time Warner Cable).
Welcome back! Day two was full of just as many great activities and brain teasers for the campers. Starting off the day, Mike Muscatell the information security manager at Snyder’s-Lance provided a presentation cyber security. After Mr. Muscatell was finished, the campers were introduced to “the scenario.” This scenario is a weeklong effort in attempt to show the campers what a real-life scenario could look life, give insight into the mind of a criminal, and show how these situations could be handled. In this beginning part, the campers were introduced to the characters, and were shown the initial situation, and the immediate actions that were taken by the IT department. Up next was the presentation from the FBI. Agents talked to campers about both the chain of custody, as well as what must happen in the recording of crucial evidence. Following this presentation was the LockFALE presentation, where the students learned about physical security measures. The LockFALE presenters also went over physical lockpicking, and taught the students how to responsibly pick locks. Following this was our lunch break, once again in the microsoft cafeteria. Next Ryan Hausknecht, information security analyst, gave a presentation on modern trojan horses. This malware is an emerging infection, and can be very deadly in both the right hands, and the wrong hands. After this presentation, the campers were reintroduced to the scenario. The story continued, and the campers were questioned about what has happened so far. After this, the FBI have a presentation on Cellbrite, a tool used by forensics to analyze and collect images of compatible phones. This can then be used as evidence, and provide willing information in court to receive a conviction. Without a doubt, it was a great day, and tomorrow will be even better!
Hello! Today, was an exciting day for the campers. To start the camp, the campers were welcomed by an FBI agent and the President of the Charlotte InfraGard. Shortly after getting welcomed the students got to know their counselors and junior counselors. The counselors introduced themselves and where they work. Succeeding “Meet the Counselors,” where the campers met with the team of volunteers that would be helping them throughout this week, the twenty-nine campers were introduced to computer hardware. The underlying goal of this, in cohesion with the following activity, was to familiarize these learners with the hardware that they would be operating on. In our arsenal, we had access to several retired laptop computers and desktop computers that had been formatted (an important security precaution in order to preserve the privacy of the previous end-user). We then gave the campers access to all of the screwdriver type tools that they would need, and let them choose a computer in order to disassemble, and really learn what makes them tick.
After the computer hardware teardown the students heard from Doris Gardner. Ms. Gardner presented and spoke to the campers about Cyber career opportunities, critical infrastructures, and the importance of Infragard. Ms. Gardner placed emphasis about the critical infrastructures that are imperative to the advancement and continuity of our modern life. She also defined what Malware stood for, Malicious Software, and gave the campers the reasons why Cyber Career opportunities are increasing. Denis McDuff, CEO of eBrowselow, spoke to the campers about the business behind Software Development. He explained the number of the Software Developers in the United States compared to other countries and stressed that the pool of Software Developers is becoming larger and larger. Mr. McDuff talked about the secrets of getting hired, and the secrets of job success. Mr. McDuff also shared some of his personal stories, as he grew up in the emerging technology sector.
Later on in the day we learned how to use a Caesar Cipheras demonstrated by an FBI agent. A Caesar Cipher is a way of decryption method of plain text. A Caesar Cipher will shift letters in order to unveil a secret message. It is a very useful method to decrypt hidden messages in plain text. Today, the students also learned how to use many different tools including Nmap. Nmap is a tool that allows the students to view the weakness’ of other computers on the same network. They practiced scanning each other’s computers to view what ports were open. Learning this information they can further can access to the computer being scanned.