Cyber Safe Guard

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Most of us don’t give digital security a second thought. Even with news of online election interference and frequent hacks, we brush off breaches as happening to other people and think we’ll be fine.

But many cyberattacks have happened right here in The 330. In August 2017, a local hacker shut down the city of Akron’s website and threatened our municipal government. With data at risk and citizens unable to access public information, six agencies including the FBI and U.S. Defense Department — which the hacker also targeted — teamed up to locate the criminal and restore the website. And in May, Coventry Local Schools was forced to cancel a school day due to a virus that infected school computers and threatened everything from phones to building access and security.

“You cannot kill an idea. You cannot stop the resistance. We are the 99 percent and we are here,” warned a foreboding, computerized voice in a YouTube video tweeted by the Akron hacker.

The University of Akron understands the digital threat is here and ever-evolving. So they’re spearheading Ohio’s first computer information systems cybersecurity bachelor’s degree to train students for jobs in the field of keeping our data safe. The Ohio Cyber Collaboration Committee has chosen the university as a second base for the statewide Cyber Range, which will be a virtual resource for people across the state to develop cybersecurity skills. One day graduates may be able to help Ohio combat the threat as part of the Cyber Reserve, proposed in a state bill as a citizen cybersecurity corps that would join Ohio armed forces.

“This is really a matter of national security at this point — cyberwarfare more than anything else,” says John Nicholas, a University of Akron computer information systems professor. “It’s gotten to a point where countries are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to get smarter and find ways to hack the system. We’re up against supercomputers battling other supercomputers.”

The Cyber Range and other expansions will help The University of Akron train students in this emerging field to lead the local response to a rapidly increasing global threat.

An Invisible Threat

Before they can respond to these attacks, students are taught to understand how security breaches happen. Nicholas says one danger is ransomware, a type of malware or software designed to damage your computer or network.

“Usually those come in an email, and it says, Click here, there’s a problem with your account. You click, and it downloads this virus on your machine,” he says.

A computer virus can present itself in many forms, including unwanted windows opening, your device running very slowly or your browser homepage suddenly changing.

Another easy way for hackers to access your information is through social media, says Collin Carrick, a University of Akron student majoring in both computer information systems digital forensics and cybersecurity with a minor in computer security.

Sharing that cute picture of the family dog with the caption, Fido loves going on walks can really put you at risk when the security question for your account is “What is your pet’s name?” Once hackers have this intel, they can access important information like passwords, addresses, emails or phone numbers.

Understanding these threats helps students learn to develop safeguards against them.

Local Response

This fall, The University of Akron will become the second base for the statewide virtual Cyber Range resource. Students can work through scenarios that are constantly updated and practice network defense.

The range will be accessible to some members of the public. It will be free for prekindergarten to 12th-grade students and students at nonprofit higher education institutions across Ohio, as well as members of the military. Private organizations can use the facility for a fee.

In the cybersecurity major, students take classes that explore digital forensics, as well as intensive mathematics classes, which are unique to the university and teach how to create and analyze code. They also get to know almost every operating system and network out there because response tactics vary.

“No two networks are the same. Most of them you have just to keep digging away until you find an answer,” Nicholas says.

A couple years before other universities, The University of Akron developed its cybersecurity major to address the need for increased awareness and education on this growing issue. That intuition was right. In just two years since the program’s inception, enrollment in the cybersecurity major has practically tripled, from 46 students in the fall of 2017 to a projected 200 this fall. The first students who graduate in the new computer information systems cybersecurity major in 2021 are on track to be leaders in the expanding tech security industry.

“We’ll have local experts available once graduation comes around,” Carrick says.

Emergency Action

Hopefully these graduates can not only fill some 7,300 open information technology positions across the state, but they’ll possibly join the proposed Cyber Reserve as well.

To make Ohio and its citizens safer from hacks and information breaches, a bill to create a civilian Cyber Reserve force is currently moving through the Ohio Legislature. The Cyber Reserve would be an arm of the Ohio National Guard made up of citizens trained in cybersecurity who would collaborate to prevent hacks and respond when cyberattacks occur.

Nicholas sits on a subcommittee of the Ohio Cyber Collaboration Committee created to plan the Cyber Reserve. He says the Cyber Reserve would be a huge service to Ohio residents. For example, our public school systems and municipalities often lack the independent funds for the IT support required to keep networks and information as safe as possible, leading to havoc like the attacks on Coventry and the city of Akron. The Reserve would be a resource for them. Nicholas advocates the Reserve can help us take this significant threat more seriously and help keep us all safer.

“To have this force of highly trained people, especially at the military level, who can come in and immediately determine if it has the earmarking of cyberwarfare or if this is another cybercrime attack is going to be very beneficial to the state,” Nicholas says.