CyBERCON, a full-day program of presentations highlighting ESU's expanding cybersecurity academic programs and the job opportunities for graduates trained in the protection of online data and computer systems, hosted three speakers from Kansas and Colorado with varying experience in the cybersecurity field.
John Bryant, a former U.S. Naval Intelligence officer with 11 years of experience with the U.S. Army, delivered the event's keynote speech, Social Engineering. Bryant is now a regional cybersecurity advisor for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency office in Kansas City.
Jerry Horton, technology and cybersecurity director for two Kansas-based companies, Networks Plus and Blue Valley Technologies, delivered CyBERCON's third presentation, Tales From The Darkside — Lessons Learned While Becoming An Ethical Hacker.
Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Stan Richister, manager of Missile Defense Agency's Cybersecurity Service Provider Computer Emergency Response Team at Schriever Space Force Base in Colorado, delivered remarks on Social Engineering and Operations Security.
According to Richister, the field of cyber and cybersecurity is fast-growing and understaffed, leaving plenty of room for upward momentum. For him, the work is also fulfilling.
"When you work on something highly classified, you know what your contribution is," Richister said. "And it was fun going to work and knowing that I was doing something."
Richister shared his advice for students just getting started in the cyber field. One of the biggest unknown facts, he said, is that there are thousands of nontechnical jobs in cyber, so the field is not limited to people with technical or computer science degrees.
As a manager, Richister said his position within the cybersecurity field at the Missile Defense Agency is to oversee the cybersecurity service providers, a team that sends updates, patches and corrective action as needed to maintain the security of MDA's network.
"I cannot get behind a keyboard and do digital forensics. I cannot get behind a keyboard and do ethical hacking. But I understand my team, who does do that," he said. "They will come to me and say 'Hey, we've got a request.' or "We've got this mission we have to go do. We are going to do this, this and this.' And then I report it up to my senior leadership, but I'm the one who actually approves it. ... I have to take that and translate it into verbiage that they understand."
As for the technical side, Richister said it's similar to being a security officer.
"If you build a military base with multi-million dollar aircraft, what good does it do you to build a base with multi-million dollar aircraft if you didn't put a perimeter fence around the base and people armed to protect it," Richister said. "Cyber and cybersecurity are not the same thing. Cyber is just building the networks, routers. Civil engineers build the base and then security forces, cops, protect it. People who build networks are your civil engineers and people who do cybersecurity are typically your cops. They protect and defend."
When choosing a job in cyber, Richister said following your passions, and not the money, is important.
"It really does fall back to you. Look at your own personal skills and interests. Is there something that you do or enjoy that you could do [in cybersecurity]," Richister said. "I've known pilots that love flying, and because they love flying, they got into cybersecurity and now they work on aviation software development. So they just combined two of their interests."
Leticia Rust, Director of ESU's Cybersecurity Research & Outreach Center, said the new facilities on campus will be able to help ESU students realize those dreams as well.
"With our change in curriculum we are also going to have a new lab environment which is going to be completely offline from our on-campus internet, so we can do some penetration testing, we can do some hands-on ethical hacking, within our lab which is going to be great," Rust said.
Rust said cybersecurity will do nothing but grow across the nation, to fill the 600,000 job deficit in the field.
"It's a great thing to have students who are willing to come and listen about cybersecurity," Rust said. "A lot of people are worried about cybersecurity because it's such a taboo topic. But what cybersecurity really is is 20 percent technology and 80 percent interaction. For students to be able to understand that and know that they have a place in cybersecurity because it's a huge umbrella of jobs."
For more information on ESU's CYROC programs, call 620-341-5106 or email cyroc@emporia.edu.
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