Minutes from November 17, 2015 Open Board Meeting-Tony Coulson, Cyber Security

 Tuesday, November 17, 2015

 Open Board of Directors Meeting

 San Bernardino Community College District
114 S. Del Rosa Drive
San Bernardino, CA 92408

Minutes

 

Present: Deborah Barmack, Rigo Bejarano, Carole Beswick, Russ Bogh, Tom Brickley, Ann Bryan, Mike Burrows, Ken Coate, Erik Johnson, Pam Langford, John Mirau, John Prentice, Brian Reider, Kristine Scott, Paul Shimoff and Phil Waller.

Guests:  Robbie Broedow and Kevin Mirau.

Announcements:   1) Inland Action will hold a Strategic Planning Session on Saturday, January 23, 2016, at the Redlands Country Club.  Golf will be available to those interested.  2) James Fallows, writer and journalist with The Atlantic Monthly will hold an American Futures 2016 presentation on Saturday, January 30, 2016.  The program will be held in the Casa Loma Room at the University of Redlands from 9:00a.m.-2:00p.m. Invitations to the membership will follow.  3) In support of the Countywide Vision the Vision2Read initiative is a campaign designed to focus attention on reading and literacy.  Businesses and groups are asked to add an “Add A Book” holiday collection box for donations of new or gently used books that will be distributed to children.  The existing Inland Empire Children’s Book Project already in many Inland cities was discussed.

M/S/P:  Minutes from November 10, 2015.

Pam Langford introduced Dr. Tony Coulson, Director, Cyber Security, California State University-San Bernardino.

Cyber Security in the U.S. is in crisis.  For too long our country has failed to focus on training Cyber Security personnel and has left us in a major deficit.  There are currently an estimated 230,000 open positions in the private sector and 1 million in government.

The dangers are many and vast.  Communications between extremists in the recent attacks in Paris are now believed to have been through Sony PlayStation systems.  We depend on computer systems in virtually every aspect of life.  Over 90% of world money goes through computers.  Additionally, mercenary hackers are big business for those wanting monetary gain or social change.

China, Russia and other countries have established programs to train in this field but the U.S. has fallen short.   Russians are well situated as they have historically focused education in math and sciences and can transition easily.  In the U.S. we have not had that focus and there is a perception of Cyber Security as geeks/nerds debating Star Trek.  We need to encourage individuals to get into this critical and growing field.

Over the past 5 years the demand for cyber security workers has increased with the task of managing and safe guarding increasing consumer data:

  • Finance             + 137%
  • Healthcare       + 121%
  • Retail trade      +   89%

The most difficult areas to fill today are “hybrid jobs” that call for dual skills rarely taught together such as Accounting and I.T. skills.  Dr. Coulson stated his best students come from all walks of life and at various ages.  Successful Cyber Security students are smart, resourceful and problem solvers.  Salaries for Cyber Security positions typically begin near six figures.

GenCyber is working to address the Cyber Security shortfall and provides summer Cyber Security camp experiences for students and teachers at the K-12 level. The goals of the program are:

  • Help students understand correct and safe on-line behavior
  • Increase diversity and interest in Cyber Security and careers in the Cyber Security workforce of the Nation
  • Improve teaching methods for delivering Cyber Security content in K-12 computer science curricula.

GenCyber camps are open to all student and teacher participants at no cost. Funding is provided jointly by the National Security Agency and the National Science Foundation.

CAE Community is a community of Universities and Community Colleges that have distinguished themselves as centers of academic excellence in Information Assurance/Cyber Defense to the National Security Agency (NSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  Nationally there are 220 institutions working collaboratively to innovate and fill the pipeline of future Cyber Security personnel.

The National Initiative for Cyber Security Education (NICE) Challenge Project was created to develop virtual challenges and environments to test students and professionals alike on their ability to perform NICE Framework tasks and exhibit their knowledge, skills, and abilities.  The project is a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant project.

Cal State San Bernardino is a national leader in Cyber Security training.

A Q & A period followed.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 a.m.