Delaware graduates first cyber-security training camp class

    20 Delaware students spent the past week getting hands-on training on how to secure cyberspace from domestic and international threats.

    Delaware is one of just three states in the nation (California and New York are the others) to host a week-long intensive training session for what are hoped to be the next soldiers on the cyber battlefield.  The training program held at Wilmington University with funding provided by the U.S. Cyber Challenge program.

    20 students from the University of Delaware and Wilmington University had classroom sessions by day and met with cyber security experts in the evening.

    Chief Information Officer for Delaware, Jim Sills is also the Secretary of the Department of Technology and Information.  He told graduates of the camp that there is a reason that cyber security is one of the hottest segments of the IT field.  “It’s not an issue of if there’s going to be a cyber attack, it’s an issue of when.  So, with your hard work and your [perserverance], I’m really confident that we will be able to protect one of our vital strategic assets which is really our network, and our information security.”

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    Senator Tom Carper told the graduates that the need to protect the nation’s computer systems is growing because the threat is growing.  “We have folks that want to steal information involving our intellectual property, our development of products, technology, and rather than people of other countries sort of developing on their own, they’ll steal it from us.”

    The CIA’s Clandestine Information Technology Office estimates that there are about 1,000 people in the country who have the skills to combat the global cyberspace threat.  They suggest the number needed to adequately protect the nation’s computer systems is between 10,000 and 30,000 people.

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