Eight hours a day, three days a week, Pokuaah, 31, sits in a French cafe in Chantilly, Va., with her laptop, taking an online class that could put her on the front lines of a battle in cyberspace that begins every time a person logs on to a computer. Pokuaah is studying to become a cybersecurity analyst trained in identifying and defeating cyberattacks.— according to the FBI’s Internet Criminal Complaint Center, also known as IC3. Those are the cases we know of.
The cause? A cybercriminal gang known as DarkSide had successfully launched a ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, one of the nation’s biggest fuel pipeline operators that supplies almost half the gasoline, diesel and other fuels to customers on the East Coast. It was just one of several high-profile attacks in recent years, albeit one of the largest, and it transformed the way we do business.
George Washington University, which is one of the Department of Homeland Security’s certified Centers of Excellence in the field, expanded its class offerings in cybersecurity, including a partnership with Northern Virginia Community College that awards degrees or helps students work toward basic certification. The program includes cybersecurity boot camps that compress a lot of information into a short period of time.
Several themes emerged. No business is too small to be a target. Data is the lifeblood of any modern company. People cannot be too paranoid — or too prepared. Attacks come from all over, including Russia, Iran, China and inside the U.S. “I was, like, ‘I’m not a geek; I’m not a nerd.’ I know about IT but I’m just not there with coding and all that extra stuff,” Mills said. She enrolled in the computer studies program at Montgomery College, using Veterans Affairs benefits to pay tuition, and eventually found a job at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in cybersecurity compliance. With on-the-job training and another cybersecurity course, Mills aimed toward becoming certified.