Schools recognized for participation in CyberCamp

Published 2:19 pm Saturday, August 20, 2016

FRANKLIN
Franklin City Public Schools has received recognition from the Virginia Department of Education for their participation in the statewide CyberCamp this summer.

“On behalf of the Virginia Department of Education, please congratulate your students for participating in the statewide pilot, Virginia CyberCamp 2016,” a letter from the department to superintendent Dr. Willie Bell stated. “We are pleased to announce that 700 students participated in the program and more than 265 educators received professional development training from the Cyber Innovation Center, a division of the National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center.”

The students from FCPS who participated in the camp went on several field trips and expanded their knowledge on a variety of aspects dealing with cybersecurity.

They attended informational sessions at Bronco Federal Credit Union and Food Lion where they learned about malware, social engineering, phishing, identity theft, the importance of securing networks through firewalls, filtering, breach prevention, the importance of securing customers’ information, in-demand careers and personal experiences. They also took a tour of Old Dominion University’s Campus and created several projects throughout the summer dealing with this subject.

At the end of the program, they were given certificates for their participation and successes.

The letter from the VDOE added that the students’, “experiences and activities will have a significant impact on building the pipeline for K-12 education to meet Virignia’s cybersecurity work force demands.”