As the digital world continues to grow, so does the need for cybersecurity professionals. With 480,000- 570,000 open cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. and more expected to open according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, computer science teacher Kimberly Ingraham-Beck encourages students to explore the growing field.
“Cybersecurity is about securing digital information—whether it’s the files on your computer, your online profile or your accounts,” Ingraham-Beck said. “It’s all about making sure your information is safe.”
Ingraham-Beck, teaches basic to advanced computer science courses with Cybersecurity being one of the most advanced as it requires students to have passed Java, another advanced course, with a grade of a three or higher as a prerequisite. According to the curriculum handbook, “Nationally, computational resources are vulnerable and frequently attacked; in Cyber Security, students solve problems by understanding and closing these vulnerabilities.”
To illustrate that objective, Ingraham-Beck uses current events and real-world examples to teach students about digital security.
“I tell my students to always be paranoid,” she said. “If you get an email from someone you don’t recognize, or if it sounds too good to be true, don’t respond.”
One of those real-world examples hit close to home earlier in the school year when students and staff received scam emails that looked real. When this happened, Assistant Principal Jami Ewer even made an all-school announcement informing students not to open the email or to click on the link in it.
Students currently in Ingraham-Beck’s Cybersecurity class are learning practical skills to protect themselves from online attacks such as those, by learning to create strong passwords and using two-factor authentication. They are also gaining experience by simulating cyberattacks and learning how to defend against them.
“We do labs where we set up ransomware attacks on computers and see how they affect the victim,” Ingraham-Beck said.
For those students who end up finding a passion for cybersecurity through her class, there are large projects happening in the Omaha area that could lead to potential future career opportunities for them.
“Bellevue is about to get a multi-million dollar cybersecurity infrastructure built, we are going to need lots more cybersecurity people here in the Greater Omaha area,” Ingraham-Beck said. “This field is growing fast, and it’s a high-paying career,” she said. “you’re guaranteed an $80 grand-a-year job, not going to college. That’s not even including if you have more education and more certifications on top of that. Now, it’s not the easiest certification to do, but our class prepares you for it, and there’s tons of stuff to help train.”
As digital threats and cyber crimes continue to evolve, Ingraham-Beck encourages all to be safe online and reiterates the importance of cybersecurity.
“The more you learn, the safer you’ll be,” Ingraham-Beck said. “Some countries are perfectly okay with cybercriminals; they have full office buildings of malicious hackers,” Ingraham-Beck said. “That is their day-to-day job. They get paid if they scam you out of money, and the only way that we can combat that because they’re in other countries that we have no jurisdiction is by having good hackers who can stop them.”