Austin Mao’s Reflection for RFK Cyber Solutionz Day 1
Today was an amazing day. I came in and they gave me a free breakfast! Amazing! Afterwards, a guest speaker came to talk to us. Apparently, the company has a lot of connections, because he was an important professor from ODU. His name was Dr. Wu, and he a cyber researcher. He gave us a lot of cool information about the cyber world; it was like an introduction to the camp. Afterwards we split up into groups. My instructor today was Nikia. She was the software expert, and she talked about the many different types of operating systems. I learned about the troubleshooting theory, which is a procedure to troubleshoot computers. It is comprised of six steps: I(dentify the Problem) E(stablish a theory of probable cause)at T(est Your Theory)wix E(stablish a plan)very V(erify full system functionality)alentine’s D(ocument Your Findings)ay. The mnemonic is I Eat Twix Every Valentine’s Day. Next, we learned about safety. We learned how to handle computers and what measures to take to prevent harm being done to us or the computer. We learned about electromagnetic interference and what it does. To prevent it, you need equipment like antistatic bags and electrostatic devices. Afterwards, after lunch, which was pizza, we learned all about the different operating systems and their features. This was interesting because I knew a lot of them but I didn’t know their names. I also learned about some operating systems I’d never even heard of, like Linux! That’s all for today. See you tomorrow.
Austin Mao’s Reflection for RFK Cyber Solutionz Camp Day 2
As usual, I came in and a hot breakfast was waiting for me. After I ate, a guest speaker named Doug Streit came and talked to us about his job. I didn’t like how the information was basically a repeat of last time and the speaker was again from ODU, but I still found it interesting. One thing I learned from him was how ODU and other big organizations were secured. It was interesting to learn about the ways ODU kept itself secure from hackers even though it was so big and easily vulnerable. I couldn’t believe all the great features ODU offered to its students and faculty. and the lengths people went to secure it.
After the speaker left, Mr. Carl came to teach us about hardware. This unless, unlike the previous class, talked all about the actual hardware itself and was hands on. It was mostly just him listing all the different features of the hardware and felt different from the class yesterday. He talked all about the motherboard, the heart of the computer, and all its components. These included the extension slot, the RAM slot, RAM, SATA, the PSU, the CPU, and more. He also gave a quick review of what we learned yesterday. This felt like a lot more to memorize. It’s cool to learn about what computers are made of. The CPU is like the brains of the computer. It does the calculating for the computer. There are two types of CPUs, LGA and PGA (Land Grid Array and Pin Grid Array). The difference is purely aesthetic; PGA has pins on it. The PSU, the power supply unit, is the powerhouse of the computer. RAM is essential for the computer to run, it is temporary storage, and it sends messages from the source to the processor. Without RAM, the system cannot run because it is unable to receive the start-up command. We also learned about the many different ways to store data, such as floppy disks, flash drives, and hard drives. DIMM is a type of RAM. Also, there is software, the only software, on the motherboard. It is called BIOS, and every motherboard has one. The BIOS is powered by the CMOS, which is a tiny battery. This is also the smallest removable component on the motherboard. One edition of the BIOS is the UEF. BIOS is the only ROM (Read Only Memory) on the motherboard. It tells the motherboard what to do and is used for testing, troubleshooting, and giving diagnostic reports of the computer. One thing I randomly learned is that the lines on the motherboard are called traces. There are two bridges on the motherboard, the north and the south bridge. They have different functions. The north bridge controls all traffic in the motherboard, while the south bridge is the input/output control. There are extension slots in each motherboard, and they allow you to insert extension cards into them. These cards basically allow you to give your computer new capabilities, such as streaming 8k.
I also learned to be more careful when holding a smoothie. Long story short, it got messy. The instructors were very nice about it, though, like they always are. We did an icebreaker today that involved someone naming a word starting with the letter “A,” then the next person had to say that word and then one with “B,” and so on until one guy had to say all the letters of the alphabet’s word and their own. It was a great lesson on paying attention and training your memory.
That’s all for now.
Austin Mao’s RFK Cyber Solutionz Day 3:
Today we went over hacking and social engineering, two things I were very excited about and the reasons why I was interested in this camp. When I came in, as usual, a great breakfast awaited me. TWO guest speakers came in today, and both were very knowledgeable and competent. Both came from the military and were very distinguished officers. We learned about social engineering, which is manipulating someone into doing something you want to do, and geotagging, which is mapping the geographic location of cellular devices. Both topics were very interesting. Afterwards, we had an icebreaker that we do not speak of. Basketball, the outdoors, and a computer camp do not mix. Then the second guest speaker came in. He was one of the best hackers in the military, and he was paid a lot. He answered all our questions very well. Our teacher today was Chris Rimmer. We learned about the different types of hackers, including white hats, the good guys, grey hats, people who try to do good but not necessarily in a legal way, and black hats, who illegally hack others in order to gain profit or power. We learned about how white hats operate and how they hack. We learned about penetration tests, hacking simulations conducted by white hats to test a company for vulnerabilities and to give the company tips on how to improve their security. We learned about the types of penetration tests, including white, grey, and black boxes; depending on the level, the hacker may get any number of information to conduct an attack. We were introduced to several websites that tell us if we have been hacked. All in all, it was all pretty cool.
The end.
Austin Mao’s RFK Cyber Solutionz Day 4:
Today was equally amazing. As usual, of course, breakfast was awaiting me. It was as always; after finishing it, a guest speaker by the name of … came to speak about our future and the future of cybersecurity. She was from Regent University and was in charge of hacking simulations there. She explained that similarly to pilots, hackers were trained using simulators that emulate a real-world scenario. After we were done, we had an ice breaker with human knots. When we came back, we went in depth with social engineering, learning about the different types of attacks, including phishing. Phishing is when emails are mass sent to many computers in the hopes that somebody will click on it and download malware. There are specific types of phishing, like spear phishing, which is a targeted phishing attack. We also learned how organizations can prevent attacks by training their employees and creating policies to minimize the chance of a successful attack. For example, a lot of companies have a least privilege policy, which means that employees have the minimum permissions required to do their job. After the lesson finished, we had subs for lunch. Later, played a game online at the PBS Kids Cyber Lab where we were the CEO of a new social media app and had to do challenges, like guessing a password while creating a strong password, to defend our company from cyber-attacks. This was a very interesting activity because it combined fun with challenges and learning. After each attack we learned a little bit about different kinds of cyber-attack. Overall, today was a really fun and educational day. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you!
The end.