Operation K12

Cyber Florida Hosts the Inaugural CyberLaunch Competition

On March 1, 2024, Cyber Florida proudly hosted the inaugural CyberLaunch Competition in Orlando, Florida. The event marked a resounding success, with over 900 students from 97 Florida counties and 44 school districts uniting to test their cybersecurity skills, overcome new challenges, and network with potential employers in the cyber industry!

As Florida’s first statewide high school cybersecurity competition, CyberLaunch aimed to introduce high school students to the universe of cybersecurity careers through the fun of a statewide competition. The event provided a safe, cost-effective, and low-pressure environment for students to showcase their abilities, collaborate as teams, and gain valuable experience in the thrilling world of cybersecurity competitions.

CyberLaunch featured two competition tracks to cater to diverse skill levels, and both competitions were created with the help of EC-Council. The Guided competition was designed for competition beginners, and the Advanced Capture-The-Flag (CTF) was tailored for those with previous experience in CTF competitions.

Here are the notable winning teams from each category:

Guided Winning Teams –

1st place | NeoCity Academy (Osceola County) Teacher: Juan Tovar

2nd place | – Bayshore High School (Manatee County) Teacher: Chuck Routhier

3rd place | Doral Academy (Miami-Dade) Teacher: Jose Luis Del Valle/ Luis Santa Cruz

4th place | NeoCity Academy (Osceola County) Teacher: Juan Tovar

Advanced CTF Winning Teams:

1st place | John A. Ferguson Senior High School (Miami-Dade)Teacher: Maria Hernandez

2nd place | Crooms Academy of Information Technology (Seminole County) Teacher: Halima Fisher

3rd place | Hernando High School (Hernando County) Teacher: Mason Lewis

Beyond the competition, CyberLaunch featured an exhibit hall featuring more than 50 companies and organizations. Students had the chance to network with industry professionals, explore potential career paths, and gain insights into the diverse opportunities available in the ever-evolving field of cybersecurity.

This event not only celebrated the remarkable achievements of Florida’s high school students but also highlighted the crucial role educators play in nurturing the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. The Cyber Florida team is committed to continuing this journey of empowerment, fostering a future where students and teachers alike thrive in the vast and exciting landscape of cybersecurity possibilities.

Stay tuned for more details regarding the 2025 CyberLaunch Competition!

2024-03-08T15:51:48-05:00March 8, 2024|
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Exploring ITS Cybersecurity Education

Join our Operation K12 team to explore the ITS Cybersecurity Certification.

In this webinar, we’ll explore the standards, alignment, and benefits of the ITS Cybersecurity Industry Certification.  We will review the content of the certification and discuss resources and integration.  Participants will have access to free instructional materials, practice tests, and test vouchers.

register
2024-02-12T13:32:16-05:00January 22, 2024|
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CARE Lab 2024 Social Engineering Competition

The CARE Lab is hosting its 4th Social Engineering Competition virtually in April/May 2024!

SEC allows students to compete in a purely social engineering experience that is grounded in the social sciences. The competition offers a timely and unique platform for students to learn about social engineering in a hands-on, engaging, and ethical manner. The competition has a different theme each year to demonstrate the relevance of social engineering across various cybersecurity areas, and is open to high school, undergraduate, and graduate students.

This year’s theme, tax scams, is inspired by the IRS’ annual Dirty Dozen list of tax scams for 2023. According to IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, scammers are “coming up with new ways all the time to try to steal information from taxpayers”. So, what exactly are these ways? Come find out how cybercriminals are using social engineering in employment and tax scams.

No technical experience is required. High school and college students (aged 14+) from all disciplinary backgrounds are welcome!

Details

Applications for the 2024 Social Engineering Competition are being accepted from NOW till Monday, February 19th, 2024 at 12pm ET

Orientation date (virtual): Saturday, March 23, time TBD (this is not optional – please hold this date on your calendar)

Competition dates (virtual, these are not optional – please hold these dates on your calendar):

Graduate Level: April 5, 6, 7, times TBD
Undergraduate: April 19, 20, 21, times TBD
High school Level: May 3, 4, 5, times TBD

Closing ceremonies (virtual): Wednesday, May 8, time TBD (this is not optional – please hold this date on your calendar)

Why a ‘pure’ social engineering competition?

There are MANY cybersecurity competitions already in existence (PicoCTF, PlaidCTF, CSAW, UCSB iCTF, US Cyber Challenge, Panoply, CPTC, CCDC, CyberPatriot, Cyber Academy, to name a few). While these are all excellent sources of hands-on training, they are primarily technical in nature and have specific focus areas, such as reverse engineering, hacking, cryptography, and exploitation. They do not emphasize the relevance of the human-socio-psychological aspects of cyberattacks and cybersecurity.

Given that the human factor is increasingly being exploited by cybercriminals, a pure SE competition grounded in the social sciences offers a timely and unique platform for students to learn about this topic in a hands-on, engaging, and ethical manner.

Who can participate?

This event is open to high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. Teams are required (solo entries are not permitted). Team sizes can range from 2-4 members. Members can be from different institutions (schools/colleges), but must be at the same educational level (ex: purely high school students).

When and how can we put our application in?

Click here to apply

*Registration deadline is Monday, February 19, 2024 at 12pm ET.

2024-01-04T09:59:15-05:00January 3, 2024|
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An Introduction to Suricata: Cyber Threat Hunters Open Source Network Monitoring Tool

Suricata is a high performance, open source network analysis and threat detection software used by many private and public organizations, and embedded in major vendor solutions, to protect enterprise assets.

Presenters:

  • Kelley Misata, Ph.D. – Outgoing President and Executive Director, Open Information Security Foundation

  • Juliana Fajardini – Software Developer, Open Information Security Foundation

2023-03-28T09:50:46-04:00March 1, 2023|
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Risky Business – A Free Risk Compliance Webinar

Join Cybersecuity Manager for the City of Lakeland Tim Emmons on Tuesday, 2/28 at 6:00 EST for a FREE risk compliance webinar!

This webinar welcomes students and attendees of all-ages who wish to do a deep dive into risk compliance and some risky business.

2023-03-28T09:50:14-04:00February 9, 2023|
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You Said What On The Internet? – A Free Webinar For Students

2023-05-02T11:12:21-04:00January 24, 2023|
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Halloween Hijinks: An Interactive Code Cracking Webinar for Students

This free webinar is open to all K-12 students wishing to learn some code-cracking skills! Join us for a spooky time!

2022-11-03T16:03:44-04:00October 20, 2022|
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RING High School Cybersecurity Course Open for Enrollment

High school students: the RING program is now accepting student enrollment requests for its FREE online cybersecurity course!

RING (Regions Investing in the Next Generation) is an online high school cybersecurity course that offers interesting and engaging content specifically for students and schools without an existing cybersecurity program. RING aims to mentor students down their career path, instilling ethics and pride in their profession along the way. RING is more than a collection of labs and presentations–it’s forging the tools that will shape the next generation of cybersecurity experts.

  • Students can achieve high school credit for RING in participating states.
  • Students can engage with each other and network with cyber professionals through the RING student organization.
  • A pilot course is being offered August 2021 through May 2022. The RING curriculum will officially launch in summer 2022.
Who are the Partner Institutions?

RING is funded through NSA CAE-C K12 Pathway grants. The list of involved institutions are:

  • The University of Alabama in Huntsville coalition:
    • Coastline Community College
    • Dakota State University
    • Pace University
    • Purdue University Northwest
    • Dark Enterprises
  • Moraine Valley Community College coalition:
    • Forsyth Technical Community College
    • Brookdale Community College
    • Florida State College at Jacksonville
    • Cal Poly Pomona
    • Eastern New Mexico University Ruidoso
learn more and enroll
Want more information?

Are you an Instructor that is interested in learning more about this program and would like to be involved?
Follow this link to fill out an interest form for Teachers and academia.

Are you a current or prospective student wanting to learn more about what this program has to offer?
Follow this link to fill out an interest form for Students, Parents, and Guardians.

2022-08-15T12:45:03-04:00August 15, 2022|
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Cyber Educators: The UPDATED Cyber Citizenship Education Portal is Now Live!

Attention all K12 educators: The NEW AND UPDATED Cyber Citizenship Initiative site is now LIVE! The new site has over 1,000 resources for teaching K-12 students about misinformation and disinformation, as well as online communities for educators to join, collaborate, and curate content.

Available Resources:

  • Courses, lesson plans, and reading.
  • Assignments and case studies for independent work.
  • Games and interactive activities for engaged learning.
  • A curated catalog of trusted partners and resources to support media literacy, cybersecurity awareness, and digital civics education.
  • Groups to collaborate with peers within your school, library, or university. Create, evaluate, and share resources in a private or open environment.
  • And more!
Visit the Resources Portal
About the Cyber Citizenship Initiative

The Cyber Citizenship Initiative began as a platform to help resolve challenges with misinformation and online polarization occurring at the intersection of media literacy, digital civics and citizenship, and cybersecurity, with a special focus on aiding K-12 teachers. The ultimate goal of the project is to support educators seeking to build students’ resilience against the new challenges and threats of the digital world through an online portal consisting of a (1) repository of vetted resources from across the internet, (2) space to build an active virtual community of educators and resource reviewers, (3) and provide a series of live and pre-recorded online trainings.

Project partners for the initiative include Cyber Florida, the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT), National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) and New America. Check out the new site at www.cybercitizenshipeducation.org

Want to get involved? Educators can create and upload learning modules, lessons, assignments, assessments, or activities to share with other educators within the portal. To learn more, visit: https://cybercitizenshipeducation.org/authoring-overview

2023-04-05T17:28:14-04:00July 20, 2022|
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Cyber Florida and New America Launch Cyber Citizenship Hub for K-12 Educators

Cyber Florida and New America have launched CyberCitzenshipEducation.org, a free online portal that contains 100 resources for teaching K-12 students about misinformation, disinformation, social media platforms, and other related topics. The hub, which launched on August 16, offers lesson plans, games, instructional materials, and other resources to help not only K-12 teachers, but also librarians, instructional technologists, and others seeking instructional materials to help students develop resilience to misinformation and disinformation.

This new hub was created in part of the Cyber Citizenship Education Initiative, a partnership among Cyber Florida, the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, New America, and the National Association for Media Literacy Education to help educate and prepare future voters to be responsible, cyber-savvy citizens. Since its inception, the project has focused on supporting educators in PreK-12 schools to arm students with “cyber citizenship” skills, skills at the intersection of media literacy, civics and citizenship, and cybersecurity awareness. While the hub is currently hosted by OERCommons, a custom platform is under construction that will launch later this year.

Learn more about this initiative on our Cyber Citizenship Education page.

2022-01-04T19:08:53-05:00September 13, 2021|
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Hosted by the University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Avenue, ISA7020
Tampa, FL 33620
outreach@cyberflorida.org
813-974-2604

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Copyright 2024 The Florida Center for Cybersecurity. Information on this website is made available for general educational purposes only and should not be used in lieu of obtaining competent legal advice from a licensed attorney or cybersecurity professional with sufficient expertise necessary to address your specific needs. Use of this website does not create any special or fiduciary relationship between you and the Florida Center for Cybersecurity or the University of South Florida.