{"id":3920,"date":"2022-04-27T14:07:19","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T14:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=3920"},"modified":"2025-03-19T14:09:20","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T18:09:20","slug":"the-importance-of-cybersecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2022\/04\/27\/the-importance-of-cybersecurity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Cybersecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column3920_4c4d6e-61 > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column3920_4c4d6e-61 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column3920_4c4d6e-61 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column3920_4c4d6e-61 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column3920_4c4d6e-61 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column3920_4c4d6e-61 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column3920_4c4d6e-61 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column3920_4c4d6e-61{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column3920_4c4d6e-61 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column3920_4c4d6e-61 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column3920_4c4d6e-61 dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\">\n<p><strong>The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and National Security Agency designated WilmU a National Center for Academic Excellence for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity. That\u2019s critical, since our digital day-to-day lives depend on the ever-changing discipline.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Mark Hufe&nbsp;learned an early lesson about cybersecurity the hard way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About 17 years ago, he created a website for his daughter that taught her how to build websites. He hosted the site on a server he administered himself. And he discovered that it had been hacked when he received a cease-and-desist order from a multinational bank, which had identified the site as the source of a phishing attack on its user data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d set the password as my daughter\u2019s name, and an automated dictionary attack cracked it,\u201d recalls Dr. Hufe, now WilmU\u2019s director of Cybersecurity Education and chair of its associate and bachelor\u2019s degrees in Cybersecurity. \u201cThat\u2019s what sub-optimal knowledge will do for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Delaware State Police\u2019s High Tech Crime Unit investigation traced the attack\u2019s origins to Shanghai, China. \u201cWho has jurisdiction over Shanghai? At that point, nobody knew,\u201d says Dr. Hufe. He contacted the bank to explain the hacked website attack. \u201cThe guy said, \u2018We get about 20 of those a day.\u2019 It\u2019s only gotten worse since then.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From business transactions and medical records to electronic com-munications and wireless internet connectivity, our day-to-day lives now depend on what is ultimately&nbsp;a vulnerable system. Especially&nbsp;since the ransomware attacks, data breaches, social engineering scams and other cybercrimes that make big news headlines are just the tip of the iceberg. According to information technology experts, tens of thousands of computer networks are hacked&nbsp;every day, potentially impacting hundreds of millions of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey say there are only two kinds of companies: those that have had their data breached and those that are going to have their data breached,\u201d says Dr. Hufe. It\u2019s one of his favorite sayings about his academic specialty. Another one is this: \u201cWhen there\u2019s a data breach, that\u2019s not the right time to be exchanging business cards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which is why the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, among other occupational observers, currently ranks cybersecurity among the nation\u2019s fastest-growing career fields. \u201cCybersecurity is a frontline issue for business,\u201d says Dr. Hufe. \u201cIt\u2019s also a matter of national security. There\u2019s a critical need for cybersecurity professionals in corporate America,&nbsp;as well as in government, law enforcement, military, and intelligence. The College of Technology is uniquely qualified&nbsp;to train students, and mid-career professionals, to meet this demand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image3920_e2240f-d5 .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;}<\/style>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image3920_e2240f-d5 size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Dr.-Mark-Hufe-web-640x449-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"kb-img\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Mark Hufe is WilmU\u2019s director of Cybersecurity Education. He calls cybersecurity a frontline business issue and a matter of national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Short History of Cybersecurity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The first generation of digital computers, developed in the wake of World War II, were room-sized mainframe machines. Access was limited, often by a locked door, to the programmers who were trained in their complex operations, which were not connected to other computers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the time men walked on the moon, reductions in the size and cost of computers were leading to their adoption at the world\u2019s largest companies, which soon began to rely on remotely networked computers to conduct their business between different locations. Passwords were&nbsp;added to protect individual accounts.<br>But the networks\u2019 multiple entry points exposed them to the&nbsp;threat, and occasional reality, of&nbsp;unauthorized access. The Cold War&nbsp;thriller WarGames (1983) dramatized&nbsp;this liability on the silver screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through the 1970s and \u201880s, university researchers and Advanced Research Projects Agency Network founders studied operating system security and developed automated techniques for identifying computer viruses and vulnerabilities. Today, companies that want to understand their vulnerabilities hire ethical hackers to attack and penetrate their organizations. These \u201cpen testers\u201d use the same techniques that bona fide cybercriminals use but operate lawfully through written authorizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;The tsunami of floppy disks and CD-ROMs advertising internet service providers that flooded mailboxes in the mid-1990s kicked off a massive increase in internet and e-mail traffic worldwide. The widespread availability of high-speed internet access about 10 years later brought even more personal and business data online. As the internet has evolved from computer science research project to household furniture and personal accessory, its security threats and their potential impact have multiplied and diversified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In response, antivirus programs, firewalls, and other cybersecurity defense tools have also proliferated. While the technicians who assess a network\u2019s operational risks and defend its data don\u2019t generate revenue for any organization, they\u2019re a critically necessary insurance policy against catastrophe and chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Learning to Be Paranoid<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s so much easier to attack than to defend,\u201d says Dr. Hufe, \u201cto find one vulnerability than to prevent any vulnerability anywhere. That\u2019s the challenge in teaching and studying cybersecurity. It changes every year; you\u2019re focusing on the attack of the year. Textbooks go out&nbsp;of edition pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Hufe joined the faculty of then-Wilmington College in 2001 after a career as a software developer. A few months before his daughter\u2019s website was hacked, he\u2019d been tasked with revising the curriculum for the Internet and Network Design degree program. Classes in software development and&nbsp;information technology already existed,&nbsp;but information security, which he\u2019d seen trending, wasn\u2019t widely known as a course of academic study. \u201cI asked my senior adjuncts, \u2018what do you think? Are there jobs here?\u2019\u201d he recalls. \u201cThey said, \u2018definitely.\u2019\u201d The website hacking incident was also a motivating factor. \u201cI\u2019ve learned to be paranoid,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then-Wilmington College launched its Bachelor of Science in&nbsp;Computer and Network Security (renamed Cybersecurity last year) in 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Six years later, thanks to Dr. Hufe\u2019s efforts, the school and the degree were designated a National Center for Academic Excellence for Information&nbsp;Assurance and Cybersecurity by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security&nbsp;and National Security Agency. This&nbsp;stamp of approval acknowledges that the coursework (continually updated to remain on the cutting edge) and faculty (who\u2019ve worked in law enforcement, banks, and other information security&nbsp;hotspots) meet the federal government\u2019s&nbsp;rigorous standards on the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen I was earning my Doctor of Education degree, we were encouraged to think big,\u201d he says. \u201cNational Center for Academic Excellence: that resonates. That\u2019s jobs. That\u2019s what I wanted to see happen. For our students and faculty to be able to put that on their r\u00e9sum\u00e9s, how cool would that be?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Possibilities and Purpose<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>That&nbsp;<em>would&nbsp;<\/em>be pretty cool. Just ask&nbsp;Roman Sheriff, deputy chief information security officer for the City of Baltimore, who credits his career in part to a bachelor\u2019s in Computer and Network Security from WilmU in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image3920_8b3b31-8a .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;}<\/style>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image3920_8b3b31-8a size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Roman-Sheriff-web-640x470-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"kb-img\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Roman Sheriff credits WilmU for his success as deputy chief information security officer for the City of Baltimore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe degree helps first,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can build a reputation through your coursework and build a network through the contacts it offers. A degree will get you in the door, if you apply yourself and ask a lot of questions. I learned as much as possible from those I worked with. My mentors at WilmU were very helpful. They were busy, but they took the time for us students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a student, Sheriff was part of a Cyber Wildcats team that competed among 1,153 teams from 56 countries in the U.S. Department of Defense\u2019s Cyber Crime Center Digital Forensics Challenge. The Wildcats took first&nbsp;place in the undergraduate division and third place worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere are a lot of open possibilities&nbsp;in cybersecurity,\u201d he says, \u201cfor someone who likes technology, who has an investigative mind, who wants to explore why something\u2019s not working, and when something\u2019s happening, why it\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rebecca Choynowski&nbsp;works as a senior cloud security architect for the Mitre Corporation, a McLean, Virginia-based research and develop-ment nonprofit. In 2013, she was taking community college classes in Maryland when hackers stole the personal data of 110 million customers of a nationwide retailer during the holiday shopping season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI thought, this seems like a huge problem that I could be interested in, that I could help with,\u201d says Choynowski. She transferred to WilmU and earned her bachelor\u2019s in Computer and Network Security in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn information security, you\u2019re assessing an application both for how it\u2019s actually being used and for all the possible ways it can be exploited,\u201d she says. \u201cThat was my main takeaway from the degree program: how can you bend something and break something beyond what its intended purpose is?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a question that offers new challenges and problems. \u201cIt still surprises me how fast technology changes,\u201d says Choynowski. \u201cIt can be exhausting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>By David Bernard<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and National Security Agency designated WilmU a National Center for Academic Excellence for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity. That\u2019s critical,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[99,291,383],"class_list":["post-3920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-magazine","tag-college-of-technology","tag-cybersecurity","tag-magazine-spring-2022"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"}],"post_tag":[{"value":99,"label":"College of Technology"},{"value":291,"label":"Cybersecurity"},{"value":383,"label":"Magazine Spring 2022"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Rachel Marchione","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rachel\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":99,"name":"College of Technology","slug":"college-of-technology","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":656,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":66,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":291,"name":"Cybersecurity","slug":"cybersecurity","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":848,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":7,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":383,"name":"Magazine Spring 2022","slug":"magazine-spring-2022","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":940,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":22,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3920"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17232,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3920\/revisions\/17232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}