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Newly Formed Cyber Patriot Team Gears up for Cyber Defense Competition, Round 2

11/11/2014

Last spring, when junior Kat LoScalzo was participating in the Long Beach F.I.R.S.T. Robotics competition, a chance encounter with a student from another school changed the trajectory of her work at Marymount, and it seems, her future. The student shared that he was starting a CyberPatriot club at his school; the concept of a club focused on teaching cyber security and encouraging STEM careers piqued Kat’s interest. Later, she looked around the convention center and noticed an incredible dearth of young women at the competition. These two moments, hand-in-hand, inspired Kat to form her own CyberPatriot club right here at Marymount.

“The observation that I really was a minority in such an important, and frankly fun, engineering competition, led me to consider the broader issue of women’s involvement in STEM. I started the CyberSailors at Marymount with the hope of addressing and altering the reality of male dominance within STEM fields.” While Marymount faculty and staff originally opened Kat’s eyes about lack of women in STEM fields, witnessing the cast of characters at the FIRST competition showed Kat what that imbalance looks like in the ‘real world.’ Now, she plans to continue to advocate for ameliorating this imbalance, at Marymount, in college, and beyond.

Kat also believes that an understanding of internet security, how to protect oneself from ‘malicious activity,’ should be required of everyone who uses technology. “Since every device is vulnerable, every device owner should learn how to be as secure as possible.”

The five-member team, Evie Antholis ‘16, Julia Fong ‘16, Alana Schweitzer ‘15, Elly Hottle ’15 and Kat, had their first competition in October. The small but intrepid team was given just 6 hours ‘to secure the vulnerabilities of the virtual images of two Windows operating systems.’ In order to participate, this group of dedicated MAC users had to familiarize themselves with Windows operating systems in the weeks leading up to the October 24^th competition. Today, they are looking forward to Round 2, taking place on November 15^th, which will involve different Windows Operating Systems -- while simultaneously taking the Cisco Challenge – a test of their cyber knowledge.

Since discovering this passion, Kat says she now plans to study cyber security in college. As much of a commitment that the club and its work have become, she says she’s never been quite as interested in any subject as she has become in cyber security. “My advocacy of women in STEM doesn’t end with CyberPatriot; it is actually just the beginning. The club has become a vehicle for me to teach others about he importance of cyber security and to encourage other young women to consider this critical field of work in our rapidly-evolving technological world.”

Founded in 2009 by the United States Airforce, CyberPatriot is a National Youth Cyber Education program created to inspire youth to pursue careers in STEM fields in general and Cyber Security in particular. For more information, visit: https://www.uscyberpatriot.org/

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