Gov. Little encourages young women to study cybersecurity

Governor little announced Idaho’s participation in an innovative cyber security training partnership with Idaho National Laboratory.

The Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics action center aims to inspire the next generation of cyber security professionals and they want to identify talented youth girls across Idaho.

This program is called Girls-Go-Cyber Smart and is open to female high school students.

They hope to encourage participants to explore their interest in cyber studies.

This program will help the young students learn the core cybersecurity skills, and build confidence in problem-solving.

INL Spokesmen Ethan Huffman said, “We’re really excited about the cyber start program that’s going to kick off shortly.” Cyber Start is a nationwide program that involves 23 different states. The goal is to get as many female participants to consider cybersecurity as a profession later in life. Worldwide there is a shortage of cybersecurity professionals. INL is currently looking for individuals to join their team. Huffman said, “Everywhere from people who do information technologies like protecting our computers from viruses and malware to more sophisticated attacks and national defense missions. We need more people involved in this, particularly females.”

INL and the state joined together to encourage young girls to choose cyber technology paths.

Wayne Austad is the Lead of Cybersecurity at INL and he says, “We have hundreds of cybersecurity researchers. They are the top talent across the nation and in the areas that we focus on. However, there is a huge shortage. We really need creative talent that enjoys this fun perfection.” Computer Science Teacher, Cathy Owen at compass academy decided to help run the new program after noticing a shortage of female students participating in her class. Owen said, “The girls who code is just a piece of what we added to get more girls involved in the program. Since I been here I just noticed it was all boys. My classroom is always top heavy. Maybe two girls and ten or twenty boys and four girls” Since the program has been opened at least seven new girls have joined the group and are looking forward to expanding their knowledge. Maya Redden a senior at Compass Academy said, “I think there is a pretty big problem with the shortage of girls in STEM areas currently. I myself am looking into going into Mechanical Engineering when I go into school. I hope to find a lot of people to connect with and I hope that it’s not just boys. I hope there is a good ratio of girls to boys.” Last week INL had eleven cyber position openings. Some of those jobs have been filled but they would like qualified individuals to apply. They strongly encourage women to also consider this field of work. High school girls may register for Girls-Go-Cyber Smart till March 20th. For more information visit: https://www.girlsgocyberstart.org/ and at https://www.cyber-fasttrack.org/ To see the types of challenges the students will face in the program, visit https://go.joincyberstart.com/