2nd Annual Virginia Cybersecurity Education Conference

Educating and graduating students that meet the needs of employers is hard. In the cybersecurity field, this challenge is compounded by the emerging and dynamic nature of the field, different needs in different industry segments, and the breadth and depth of skills relevant to cybersecurity. This panel brings together practicing cybersecurity experts from industry and government to discuss specific knowledge and skills they are looking for in graduates today, and how they see these needs changing over time. How important are hard skills like programming and penetration testing? How do CTFs translate to job skills? Do students need hardware and operating systems courses? If so, why? What soft skills are most important? What's missing and how might students and educators fill these gaps in the short and long term? Curriculum designers, faculty, and students will benefit from hearing the needs, opinions, and forecasts of this diverse panel.

If a company has employees, it has the potential for loss of data. Protecting data is an enterprise-wide issue and it starts with proper workforce training and putting cyber strategies in place that are both defensive and long-range offensive. Panelists will discuss the key elements of a workforce tool kit including legal issues that need to be incorporated into proper workforce training models.

Attendees will leave this session with the basis of job-related skills in the cybersecurity and data privacy industry, including:

1.  Understanding of cybersecurity as an enterprise-wide issue, not just an IT issue - employees and vendors serve as two of the easiest access points for hackers; and
2.  Ability to assess initial vulnerabilities and how to best train employees on both technical and legal issues.

Attendees will learn some tips and tricks on how to prepare to enter the cybersecurity workforce.  You will learn about one of the local non-profit meetups in the Northern VA area - the Northern Virginia (NOVA) chapter of (ISC)2 - that provides both networking sessions with recruiters, CISOs and hiring managers in the audience plus hands-on workshops to help our members sharpen their cybersecurity skills.  (ISC)2 is the global non-profit certification body that administers exams and training for cybersecurity certifications such as the CISSP.  Your speaker Dan Waddell is the President of the NOVA (ISC)2 chapter and also Senior Vice President at Zeneth Technology Partners.  In his role, he builds cybersecurity teams for federal and commercial clients across VA, DC and MD.  He will also give advice on how to build your resume and prepare for interviews for cybersecurity positions.  

The most recent workforce study from ISC2 estimates 2.9 million cyber jobs are currently unfilled. It's a large number and it continues to grow. However, these 2.9 million jobs are widely varied - from operations to forensics to architectures to secure code development. They require different skills, talents and capabilities. Likewise, the means by which we address these jobs is widely varied by training, certifications, formal academic programs, technical degrees and non-technical areas of study among others. As we continue to struggle to meet industry's workforce needs, we must become even more innovative in our approaches to prepare students to fill those jobs. Areas getting increased attention include internships and apprenticeships. This panel will offer some perspective on the foundational preparation methods available to students today, why variety and diversity are important, and provide insight into efforts underway to close the workforce gap using internships and apprenticeships.  How do these frameworks address the varied employment needs of industry? How do these frameworks help increase diversity in our future workforce? How do we prepare students with the right qualifications and skills to meet unknown future industry needs? Join this panel to hear how Northrop Grumman collaborates with programs in Virginia and around the U.S. to add value to Virginia's cyber education and workforce ecosystem.

You've taught your students the skills they need to work in the CyberSecurity field, but what about preparing them for the interview and hiring process? Check out this session led by Peter Mancuso, Technical Recruiter, for the latest hiring trends and other tips and tricks from an insider. In today's day and age, interviewing is not just about what's on your resume, but how you market your skillset and how well you present yourself. 
Peter works closely with hiring managers on a daily basis from enterprise businesses, healthcare entities, federal agencies, and state and local education IT departments. Peter will discuss the differences in industries and their hiring requirements and go into detail on what hiring managers really look for. He will also touch on certifications to pursue in 2019, managing your online presence, and positions that are up and coming or currently in high demand.

The Vinod Chachra IMPACT Lab at Radford University (www.radford.edu/impact) is delivering online, self-paced, competency-based education (CBE) in cybersecurity throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Cybersecurity Certificate program enables working adults to learn online, at their own pace, to master critical cybersecurity workplace competencies that map to industry standards. In this presentation, we will discuss research-based practices from cognitive science, analytics, simulation-based learning and gamification, which are incorporated into the training to ensure it is challenging, highly effective and engaging. We will also discuss challenges, which include keeping students progressing in a self-paced environment and providing hands-on experiences in hard to teach areas such as penetration testing. In this presentation, participants will also learn how the IMPACT team uses a modular and iterative development process to continuously improve the engagement and efficacy of the training with a focus on micro-credentials and learning science alignment.

The National Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week (NCCAW) focuses local, regional, and national interest to inspire, educate, and engage citizens to pursue careers in cybersecurity. National Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week takes place during November’s National Career Development Month. Learn about activities you can do to help inspire and promote awareness & exploration of cybersecurity careers.

This workshop will give up to the minute information on the courses that have been developed and implemented through every Career Cluster for Virginia's public schools and identify currently available credentials that are aligned to the Cybersecurity courses.in which high school students are enrolled.  The Virginia Department of Education has developed a Cybersecurity pathway brochure that shows the course descriptions and sequences suggested for each of the Career Clusters to share as a part of this workshop.    The newly revised Work-Based Learning Guide for Virginia will be discussed as those opportunities relate to Cybersecurity instruction and opportunities.

The so-called "Cybersecurity Skills Gap" is in the news and drives many online debates about the gap and how it should be addressed.  What if the gap was not purely technical skills or facts to be taught?  What if our future cybersecurity professionals were being blocked by artificial barriers?  What are the untaught qualities, abilities, and skills present in successful "hackers" which should be included in any cybersecurity curriculum?  In this presentation learn how to incorporate techniques to encourage the highly desired qualities of Curiosity, Confidence, Creativity, Tenacity, and Empathy in all potential cybersecurity students.