Ocean County College’s Cybersecurity Camp a Hit with Teenage Attendees

Ocean County College held inaugural sessions of its CyberSafe Cybersecurity Camp in late August, with great success. One group of students traveled to campus for morning workshops held in person, while afternoon sessions were conducted virtually for additional Ocean County middle and high school students.

“The purpose of the camp,” said OCC computer science lecturer Jonathan Weiss, “was to expose the students to cybersecurity principles, disciplines, tools and job opportunities. It emphasized discussion of security concepts, followed by hands-on exercises and training in the use of industry standard tools.

“The morning students were provided specially-constructed laptops, which ran the software necessary for them to follow along with the various exercises and activities,” Weiss added. “The afternoon students were given instructions on how to load the necessary software on their own laptops.”

Campers learned about the ethical considerations and responsibilities associated with cybersecurity and its toolsets; online safety, and how to protect personal devices and cell phones; how to administer user accounts and security permissions across both Windows and Linux computers; codes and cryptography; and how firewalls work to secure networks.

On the final day of the camp, Weiss explained, the students “saw a video from Representative Andy Kim introducing the Congressional Application Challenge, and were given tips on developing a winning computer application. They then got to look at bad programming practices that lead to security vulnerabilities, and they figured out how to make bad programs break. The camp concluded with a discussion of cybersecurity careers and the curriculum options at OCC that support them.”

Via anonymous exit questionnaires, many campers stated that they found the camp very useful and educational.

“It was an eye-opening experience and really enjoyable,” wrote one student. “Everything made sense and had made me consider a cybersecurity job.”

Another commented: “Coming into this week, I wasn’t certain what to expect or if I would like it. By the end of the week, I really enjoyed it, and I learned a lot more about the importance of cybersecurity. What I liked most about this cybersecurity camp was the coding. I liked learning more new commands. Although cybersecurity may not be the path I want to take in my life, I learned a lot about cybersecurity that can help further my education. I will continue learning more about cybersecurity, and the field of technology. I think that OCC should continue offering camps for students who are seeking more knowledge about cybersecurity.”

OCC, in fact, hopes to make the Cybersecurity Camp a summer tradition to attract promising high school students to this exciting and growing field.  —J.K.-H.

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