The process of building, nurturing, encouraging, developing, inspiring, and training future cybersecurity professionals is an ongoing lifecycle for us at Net Force. For the second straight year, our team has been working with Cal-Poly Pomona, Los Angeles Unified School District and CyberPatriot to identify and encourage new and rising talent in the industry.

This past weekend especially was a landmark occasion for those of us in Los Angeles. Over 350 middle and high school students from across Southern California gathered together for the first annual “Cyber Day Los Angeles”. Students as young as sixth grade were given Windows images to debug and remediate security issues while the advanced and battle-tested students also engaged in a Linux Capture-The-Flag (CTF) Competition.

These students represent our future team members and colleagues. It is such a huge priority for those of us at Net Force to have more friends than enemies. We want to see these students become our allies rather than those who go to the dark side. It makes our lives significantly easier.

Training future talent is a key component to defending our systems. As I wrote before, defense is not easy. Competitions like CyberPatriot and events like Cyber Day Los Angeles ensures that we have the brightest minds working on the ongoing battle against cybercrime. Cyber Threats continue to be the biggest threat to organizations alike with increased sophistication. Adversaries are becoming more adept in this field to a point where adversaries are making a profession of being evil. Knowing that these young minds are coming down the pipe brings some comfort.

At the end of the day, I find it inspiring and encouraging to see so many students, from both middle and high schools across the Southern California, gather and share a passion for cyber security.