Another summer is coming and I get to put on my teaching hat again. USCA will be hosting students in a summer class-room based cyber program again. But due to funding cuts, we will not hold the usual four-course residential program. We will be hosting two 2-week classroom-based bootcamps from June 8 to July 2.
For the first session, we have enrolled 18 local and nearby students in a free 2-week bootcamp with the goal of teaching the material and paying for the ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity and CompTIA Security+ exams. Acceptance was based on a brief essay expressing their goals, rather than hard prerequisites. As a result, I have 13 students from 5 universities, 3 high schoolers, and two non-traditional students. Some students have 2-3 years of experience in SOC or field work, some are members of Cyber Competition Teams, and others are just curious about the profession.
I envision a conversation-based experience where we debate scenarios, learn from each-others’ ideas and perspectives, host guest speakers, a CTF, and (unfortunately) cover over 400 PowerPoint slides. The course includes practice tests and an ebook. I also have a “fishbowl” of 120 questions that I will pose to get the conversations and tabletop exercises started. And of course, my war stories from 20+ years in IT and Cyber. (Like what do you do with an iPhone you find in a bathroom stall).
The second 2-week class is the EC-Council Digital Forensics Essentials (DFE) class with certification exam. Taught by my friend Ernest Momoh MBA, CISSP, CISM . Ten of the students from Session 1 will attend.
Looking forward to a great month of June.