Women in Technology support group welcomes speakers

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1 CSSIA C NNECTS WINTER 2010/11 NatioNal ResouRce center for systems security and information assurance A different attack for soldiers Cyber-attack soldiers from Fort Snelling Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) at Como Park High School, St. Paul, Minn., and students from Inver Hills Community College, Inver Hills, Minn., gathered as cyber defenders at the cyber defense event this past November at Inver Hills Community College. The event, which served as a realworld simulation, replicated hackers (red team) attempting to penetrate a business e-commerce network. The cyber defense event also was a final training exercise for the JROTC students, helping them prepare for their national high school cyber defense competition, the CyberPatriot. This is a great opportunity for the kids, said John Foley, a retired Marine and head of the Como Park High School CyberPatriot team. I wish I had this in high school. Because the demands and needs of information and technology are becoming more advanced, teenagers start training younger to obtain the experience and competitive edge needed by the time they reach college, making high school competitions more popular. Women in Technology support group welcomes speakers The bi-annual dinner meeting of Women in Technology now welcomes guest speakers. Thirty-five ladies greeted old and new friends, students, mentors and two speakers at the fall meeting at Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, Ill. In addition to students receiving advice and guidance throughout their education and careers, everyone enjoyed the knowledge and insight the guest speakers offered to the group. Lana Bilyk, Student Services coordinator at Governors State University, discussed the pros of community college students building upon their education with many adult-friendly degree-completion programs at Governors State. GSU program coordinators help schedule courses to fit within working adults needs. The average age of students is 33 years old. Along with offering doctorate degrees, GSU is one of the lowest tuition upper division schools in Illinois. Also speaking to the group was James Parker, creator of Chicago Women Entrepreneur (CWE), a website for women business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals. Parker s motivational presentation empowered the ladies to charge forward with their professions and find outlets that will assist them in advancing to the next level of success. CWE allows women to create a profile and network with other women within their field. This networking system also provides leads to customers and offers webinars on virtually any topic. The growth of this mentoring support system has been successfully managed by Angela Spyropoulos, Women in Technology Program coordinator, and supported by the National Resource Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance (CSSIA) since In the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), women are the minority. Mentoring groups such as Women in Technology offer students a role model with real-life experiences to help lead them to successful employment. To be assigned a mentor or become a mentor, contact Angela Spyropoulos at (708) , ext. 2184, or spyropoulosa@morainevalley.edu. To learn more, visit morainevalley.edu/cad/nsfmentors.htm W. COLLEGE PKWY., PALOS HILLS, IL MORAINEVALLEY.EDU

2 FBI praises CSSIA for support CSSIA Virtualization Data Center a success New technologies such as virtualized labs are just some of the big changes that have taken place since CSSIA in the fall transitioned from a regional to a national resource center. During the Fall three major events were supported using the new technology. Two Virtual National Invitational Collegiate Cyber Defense Competitions were hosted by Moraine Valley Community College and California State Polytechnic University in September and November. Seven community colleges and universities competed together remotely using CSSIA s Virtualization Data Center (CVDC) to maintain and secure virtualized company networks. Participants included colleges from Illinois, Maryland, Washington and California. The remote virtual competition environment proved to be very successful. Our new remote system is a fabulous improvement in how we offer cyber competitions, said David Durkee, CSSIA s director of competitions. Instead of teams traveling to a host school, student teams are now able to compete directly from their own school by connecting to our new system. Managing the competitions is likewise easier so more students will be given the opportunity to compete. By holding cyber security competitions, students gain the experience and skills needed in technology and security. With this new center, other schools across the country can compete remotely in future competitions. Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Chris Trifiletti (left) and Special Agent in Charge Stuart McArthur (center) thanked CSSIA principal investigator Erich Spengler (right), for CSSIA s dedication. On behalf of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it is my pleasure to thank the Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance for your outstanding support of the Springfield Infra- Gard Members Alliance (IMA) Collegiate Cyber Exercise Event. Another event using the CVDC was the Collegiate Cyber Exercise Event held in September at the University of Illinois Springfield, with students from across the state and members of the FBI and Department of Homeland Security in attendance. Illinois college students were able to expand their computer security knowledge through simulations of cyber attacks. This was a big test of the virtualized environment because all students logged in simultaneously and remotely to nearly 200 virtualized servers. The CSSIA resource center started just this Fall, so we pulled off some major events in just a few months, said Erich Spengler, CSSIA principal investigator and professor of Computer Integrated Technologies. These events were designed to push the limits of the remote virtual technology and lessons learned will support future research, development and deployment of skills events and learning environment models. The results of these three exercises have proven that the CSSIA Virtualization Data Center will successfully sustain CSSIA s State and Regional CCDC s starting in February CSSIA s You Tube Can t get enough of CSSIA? 2

3 Student Spotlight John Hanson UIS Computer Science Majors Place 4th in Cisco International Networking Competition University of Illinois Springfield students Albert Kennis and Ryan Stalets took 4th place in the recent Theater Finale of Cisco s NetRiders Networking Competition. Nearly 50 teams from the United States and Canada competed in this final round, with almost 500 teams competing overall. The competition, which is only open to students of Cisco s Networking Academy program, took place in an online environment and consisted of a 100-question, 60-minute, theoretical exam and a 20-question, 90-minute hands-on, practical exam. To earn a spot in the Theater Finale, Kennis and Stalets placed first in each of the earlier two rounds, which pitted them against other academies throughout Illinois and the Midwest. Albert and Ryan are majoring in Computer Science at UIS. They are emphasizing System Security and Information Assurance in their course work. The UIS Computer Science Department is a partner in the National Science Foundation/ Advanced Technology Education funded grant for the National Resource Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance. Student represents CSSIA at conference in Washington, D.C. Moraine Valley Community College student John Hanson receives his award from (left) David Campbell, National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education program director, and V. Celeste Carter, National Science Foundation Lead ATE program director. John Hanson, a student at Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, Ill., has been named the recipient of the Advanced Technological Education Student Award of Excellence by the National Science Foundation. Hanson, who recently represented the National Resource Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance (CSSIA) at the National Science Foundation s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) conference in Washington D.C., helped set up the CSSIA and Networking Development Group s (NDG) booth to run the CSSIA Virtualization Data Center the first ever remote access virtual competition environment. CSSIA utilizes this equipment for the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competitions (CCDC). During his student presentation, Hanson talked about all of the technologies Moraine Valley has to offer, and demonstrated the different programs and technologies used during student training, such as NetLabs. The 17th national ATE Principal Investigators Conference brought together nearly 800 people, all of whom were invited to attend, to focus on the critical issues related to advanced technological education. Erich Spengler, director of CSSIA, and John Sands, director of Moraine Valley s Cisco Academy Training Center and Co-principal investigator for CSSIA, represented the area of information technology at the conference with Sands hosting a breakfast roundtable for the Birds of a Feather Session on cyber security and Spengler serving as a table lead. The roundtable discussions included up to 10 others providing an interactive forum discussion of the topic. For more information, visit aacc.nche.edu. 3

4 High school network security competitions to begin in spring California TEXAS Florida Illinois NEW YORK Washington, D.C. The new High School Network Security Competition is part of the newly awarded National Resource Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance. John Sands, Co-principal investigator for CSSIA and director of High School Cyber Defense Competitions, has been preparing the states involved for the competition, which includes problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork skills, showcasing student talents, interacting with Cyber Security professionals and promoting information technology and network security programs. Over the past eight years, CSSIA has developed a successful model for partnering with industry and academia in developing and operating innovative skills-based competitions. These competitions result in program improvements and support the capacity building necessary to meet the critical national need for Cyber Security technicians. Skills-based competitions also provide a valuable opportunity for faculty to promote their information technology and network security programs. High School Network Security Competition Management Team John Sands, Competition Director Kim Cioni, Midwest Region John Rullan, Northeast Region Marlon Vernon, Southeast Region Davina Ruitt-Mentle, DC Metro Region Brenda Wilkerson, Chicago Public Schools Each school can have up to 10 teams made up of four students per team. For more information, visit compete.morainevalley.edu. Working Connections IT faculty development The 2011 Working Connections Institute, developed to assure information technology training for community college instructors parallels the commercial sector, will be May in Springfield, Ill. The institute, which began in 2003 with funding from the Microsoft Corporation, provides high quality and affordable professional development for faculty in emergent technologies with opportunities for peer networking and industry/business interactions. 4 Graduate credit is being offered again for all curriculum tracks through UIS. Contact Ted Mims at (217) or tmims1@uis.edu prior to beginning of the Institute.

5 Calendar of events Feb. 19 Illinois Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition www. mwccdc.org Feb. 26 Michigan/Ohio Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition March 5 Minnesota Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition March CSSIA National Visitation Committee meeting University of Illinois Springfield Contact Ginny at swyndroskiv@morainevalley.edu March 11 Cyber Defense and Disaster Recovery University of Illinois Springfield Contact Janis Rose at jrose@uis.edu March 12 Indiana/Wisconsin Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition March 25 Women in Technology, Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, IL Contact Angela Spyropoulos at spyropoulosa@morainevalley.edu March Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, IL Contact Ginny at swyndroskiv@morainevalley.edu May Working Connections IT Faculty Development Capital City Training Center, Springfield, IL June The Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education (CISSE) Fairborn, Ohio July 7-8 National Conference for Teaching Cyber Security across the Curriculum Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, Ill. Contact John Sands at sands@morainevalley.edu Scheduling for 2011 TBA Faculty Professional Development opportunities in VMWare, CCNA Security, Ethical Hacking, Wireless Security and Forensics Cyber Defense and Disaster Recovery University of Illinois Springfield will host its 8th annual Cyber Defense and Disaster Recovery conference March 11. This year s theme will be Securing the Human. The annual conference provides an opportunity for participants to network with peers throughout the Midwest and has grown in offerings and attendance each year. For more information, please contact Janis Rose at jrose2@uis.edu. Keeping community college student s best interest is top priority to CSSIA The National Resource Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance has initiated development for a league of cyber security competitions designed specifically for community colleges. The proposal for Cyber Defense Exercises for Two-Year Students (CDX2Y) is currently under review with high hopes to pilot events in fall The main objective is to provide assistance and improve preparation for two year students in their competition efforts at the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. It has been observed that four-year college and university students generally have the advantage in CCDC events. The CDX2Y, unlike the CCDC, will be various exercises including: a defense exercise similar to the CCDC but less intense, including multiple phases of design, implementation, operations, cyber defense, and an online examination. CDX2Y will be deployed with the use of CSSIA s Virtualization Data Center. The development is under the direction of the Competition Industrial Advisory Board. For more information, contact David Durkee at ddurkee14@oh.rr.com. 5

6 Conferences: CSSIA s commitment to further advancement The newly acclaimed National Resource Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance (CSSIA) has thrived through the hectic schedule it holds. Along with all of the innovative technologies, competitions, training schedules and meetings, CSSIA is committed to advancement and education through participation in various conferences, as well. Erich Spengler, CSSIA s principal investigator and professor of Computer Integrated Technologies and John Sands, co-principal investigator for CSSIA and director of High School Network Security competitions, along with CSSIA staff represented the center at the CSSIA booth. CSSIA s booth educates others on the various strategic uses of information technology to better serve students, campuses and communities. NCPN conference National Career Pathways Network s annual conference, like the 2010 conference held in October in Dallas, Tex., focuses on helping students become more motivated to learn, concentrate on their future, decrease dropout rates, improve partnerships between education and business, and much more. This past conference, under the theme: Achieve Success: Connecting Education and Employment also included sessions by John Sands promoting Women in Technology. For more information on NCPN, go to The theme was Achieve Success: Connecting Education and Employment ATE conference The American Association of Community Colleges with the support of the National Science Foundation held its 17th national ATE Principal Investigators Conference in Washington, D.C. in October. This conference brought together more than 800 people to focus on critical issues related to advanced technological education. To learn more, go to STEMtech conference The League for Innovation in the Community College held its first STEMtech conference in November at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. John Sands and other educators and industry leaders gathered to discuss increasing student access and success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Over 400 sessions covered subjects from recruiting students for STEM-related programs to using information technology to advance student learning. To learn more, contact Ed Leach, leach@league.org. ACTE The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) held its annual convention and career tech expo in Las Vegas, in December. The ACTE is a professional nonprofit membership associate of CTE educators that advocates for support for career and technical education. Spengler and Sands showcased virtualization along with a demonstration. For more information, visit ICT The Information and Communications Technology Centers joined forces to offer a Winter ICT Educator Conference in January 2011 in San Francisco, featuring presentations from industry sources of ICT educational resources and from the ICT Center and Mid-Pacific ICT Center educator communities on quality ICT education practices. Spengler and Sands did a hands-on presentation on the NetLab virtual environment. Sands also did a presentation on high school competitions. For more information, go to NICE The annual National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) conference took place in November in Maryland. Eight organizations sponsored a one-day organizational meeting to lay the foundation for the creation of a NICE Track 2 Coalition. Spengler chaired a session on Virtual/Remote Labs. Sands chaired on Central Repository of Reusable Learning Objects. For more information, go to Cyber exercise and competition industry advisory board The Competition Industrial Advisory Board, formed by CSSIA in 2008 to advise, assess and assist CSSIA with implementing successful exercise and competition events, consists of national leaders in fields of information assurance, IT security, cybercrime, computer forensics, evaluation and education. Industry/Government CIAB Representatives Bob Schoenherr... Cisco Bob Thomas... DHS/FEMA Bruce Lindberg... CSITS Doug Huber... Loraine County CC Frank Frydrych... Secure Works Greg Pangrazio... Huron Consulting Ken Rowe... University of Illinois James Lewis... Washtenaw CC Michael A. Davis... Savid Technologies Rudy Ristich... Dell/Secureworks Steve Fall... Polk Tim Flug... Inver Hills CC David Durkee... CSSIA Alan Greenberg... Boeing Corporation 6

7 CSSIA engineer installs NETLAB system One of CSSIA s top engineers, Agata Rawdanik, installed Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training s virtual remote laboratory system at Honolulu Community College. NETLAB, a remote lab solution developed by Network Development Group, enables learners of networking technologies including virtualization to remotely access networking devices used in performing lab exercises. Agata has been working for CSSIA since 2003 as a network engineer and has been a key factor leading to the deployment and success of CSSIA s new Virtualization Data Center. As an NSF National Resource Center, part of CSSIA s mission is to assist higher education institutions in deploying new learning technologies. Cyber Defense Competition Season is in Full Swing A year s worth of preparation is making its way into reality as the Midwest Collegiate Cyber Defense Competitions (CCDC) start this month. These competitions have been managed by the National Resource Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance (CSSIA) since The Cyber Exercise and Competition Industry Advisory Board (CIAB) started working on the competitions in April Since the fall 2010, CSSIA has piloted events to test the resource center s recent innovation, the CSSIA Virtualization Data Center (CVDC) based on NDG/NetLab and VMWare technology. Through successfully deployed cyber exercises and events, it has been determined CVDC can withstand the environment of the CCDC. The CCDC competition is designed to test student teams abilities to secure a networked computer system while maintaining standard business functionality. This involves team members simulating a group of employees from an IT service company that will initiate administration of an IT infrastructure. Teams are expected to keep the system operational and prevent unauthorized access. Expectations of the teams are to maintain and provide public services: a secure website, server, database server, and a workstation used by simulated sales, marketing and research staff as per company policy and mission. Each team starts the competition with a set of identically configured systems. The CCDC measures the student team s ability to maintain secure computer network operations in a simulated business environment all while the Red Team ( hackers ) attempt to scan and map the network of each team, access security, capture and leave specific files on targeted devices, and penetrate the defensive capabilities of the network. The top two winners of the state competitions will compete at the Regional CCDC, March at Moraine Valley. The winning team from Regional CCDC will go the National CCDC hosted in San Antonio, Texas, April Each school will conduct the competition at their own sites with monitors from CSSIA. Illinois: Feb. 19 State Director-Lou Balek, Moraine Valley Community College Blue teams Moraine Valley Community College Lake Land College Southern Illinois University, Carbondale DeVry University, Chicago University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Illinois State University DePaul University Joliet Junior College Michigan/Ohio: Feb. 26 State Director-James Lewis, Washtenaw Community College State Director-Paul Burkholder, Rhodes State Blue teams Baker College of Flint Baker College of Clinton Township Davenport University Jackson Community College Western Michigan University Rhodes State College Owens Community College Indiana/Wisconsin: March 12 State Director-Julie Mansfield, Indiana Tech State Director-Mohsen Dorodchi, Madison Area Technical Center Blue teams Milwaukee Area Technical College Waukesha County Technical College Madison Area Technical College Blackhawk Technical College Indiana Tech, Fort Wayne Ivy Tech, South Bend Ivy Tech, Fort Wayne Minnesota-March 5 State Director-Firasat Kahn, Metro State Blue teams Alexandria Technical College Century College Inver Hills Community College Minneapolis Community and Technical College Minnesota State Community College, Detroit Lakes Minnesota State University, Mankato Saint Cloud State University 7

8 CSSIA s National Resource Center introduces new National Visiting Committee The National Visiting Committee plans to meet March 10 and 11 in Springfield, Ill., to discuss and establish yearly criteria for CSSIA s objectives and goals, the committee includes: Dr. Barbara Belon, Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education Bob Schoenherr, Cisco Systems and Aries Technology Carol Sledge, Carnegie Mellon University Don Goff, CStar Systems Ron Dodge, United States Military Academy Daniel Manson, Cal State University Pomona Bob Thomas, Department of Homeland Security James Jones, City College of San Francisco Wayne Lewis, Honolulu Community College Alan Greenberg, Boeing Corporation Clydene Stangvik, Cisco Academy Area Manager (retired) Ronald Kovac, Ball State University Ken Rowe, University of Illinois Teaching technicians your direct link to faculty development events Find information related to faculty development for technician educators at Operated by the National Science Foundation Coming in Customized website offers faculty development on request Among the multiple innovations and changes CSSIA has done since becoming a national resource center, a strong focus has been on the creation of a customized website for training requests. In the school year, CSSIA will launch another refinement to the already successful Train-the-Trainer program. The convenience of this interactive website will allow faculty to request which curriculum training they would like to host and the date. The training schedule will be added to a master CSSIA calendar and follow-up will be completed by a staff member. Since 2003, CSSIA has trained over 2,000 instructors. The new interactive website development will help sustain and expand the rapid training schedule CSSIA is noted for. CCNA Security, VMware, Ethical Hacking, Forensics and Wireless Security are among the many offerings available. For more information, contact Ginny Swyndroski at swyndroskiv@morainevalley.edu. Learn more about CSSIA! cssia.org CSSIA Connects is published by the National Resource Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance located at Moraine Valley Community College, 9000 W. College Pkwy., Palos Hills, IL Questions and comments should be directed to Lynn Dohm, CSSIA Communications Coordinator, at (708) or dohm.lynn@gmail.com E