October 30, 2023 • 41 mins
An estimated 53.35 million US citizens were affected by cybercrime in the first half of 2022. How can you protect yourself and make a career by helping protect others? Join us for a conversation with RCBC Computing and Informatics Instructor Nabeel Baig, RCBC 3+1 Computing and Informatics major Roy Kramer, and RCBC cybersecurity major Allison Warren. We'll cover their award-winning cybersecurity club finishing sixth in the country for the 2023 Cyberbit ICL CollegiateCup, the importance of practicing safe measures when browsing online and take a deep dive into all the cyber programs RCBC offers.
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Episode Transcript
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Jason Varga (00:01):
Welcome to the program pod a national award
winning program on the rcbcPodcast Network which takes a
deep dive into the programsoffered at rcbc. through
different perspectives ofstudents, faculty and employers.
That's right. Hello and welcometo the program pod as we said a
national award winning and justfinding out too, for another
award in this year's NCAA MPRbattalions award, whether it's
(00:23):
going to be gold, silver orbronze, we'll find out we'll let
you know but it's not about ustoday. It's about cybersecurity.
As we are going to be taking alittle bit of deep dive from
different perspectives withinthat particular program again,
the host J. Varga that is me.And while it's October its
Cybersecurity Awareness Month inrcbc has been taking on its own
measures promoting the importantmeasures needed to protect
(00:46):
yourself in the cyber worldwhich also included rolling out
the required multifactorauthentication steps and
accessing their Behrmanaccounts. Why is this important?
Well, why do you ask thatbecause I have some fancy old
facts that says about whatpeople been experiencing with
cybersecurity because accordingto AG cybersecurity services, an
estimated 53 point 35 million UScitizens were affected by
(01:08):
cybercrime in the first half of2022. Between July 2020 And June
2021, the US was the mosttargeted country for cyber
attacks accounting for 46% ofthe attacks globally. Also US
citizens lost in $6.9 billionand 2021 to cyber related
crimes, including romance scams,whatever that is 950 or 956
million investment scams 1.4billion and business email
compromise of 2.3 9 billion. Sowhy is this important? Well,
(01:30):
that's what we're here to talkabout. So it's a coincidence
that we're doing all this inOctober. Maybe not, I think so.
But if it's, if so, you're readyfor to join today's here and
careers, HIPAA security. Theshow is joining us for you
today. It's Alison Warren. Here,a current rcbc student. Alison,
welcome to the show. Thank youso much for having me, Jay.
You're welcome. Roy Kramer, alsoa current rcbc student and
(01:53):
member of the suberin securityClub, which we're gonna talk
about in just a little bit. Alsothree plus one Computing and
Informatics major. Thanks forhaving us on. Yep. And Nabeel
Baig, that big bill. Alright,we're gonna do that nice and
easy. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Ourinstructor here at rcbc for
computing and informatics aspart of the stem division,
specifically engineering andtechnology. But as always like
(02:16):
to start with some with theladies first. So Allison, we're
gonna start with you. All right.So I was just talking about some
of those numbers there withcybersecurity and citizens being
attacked and well happens to beyou were one of them, right?
Unknown (02:30):
Yes. I say that but grudgingly. So me and my team
did a recent presentation. Asyou stated, we won a award which
we I think we did a fantasticjob on demonstrating a live
cyber attack. And I took thebull by the horns and what we
(02:52):
did the intro and conclusion ofour presentation, and through my
public speaking class, I learnedthat you need a good hook. And
back in 2020, I was convenientlyhad a cyber scam. And so back in
(03:16):
2020, I graduated my four yearsof college at Moore College of
Art Design, fantastic school.And I moved to Georgia with my
mom, because I found a good agood like settlement kind of
starting job there. i It was acontract work. So I did that for
(03:36):
a little while, but thencontracts only last for so long.
So I was looking for more jobsin the meantime. And when you
graduate college, you're superexcited. You want to get right
into the working world. So Itook almost anything that was
given to me. So when I got it,it already it already made my
stomach like, like turn becauseI got a text message. Not a call
(03:59):
an email. And but you know, Iwas just trying to remain
hopeful of okay, yeah, this isgonna be job number two. And so
when they're texting back andforth, it was it was texting,
like an interviewer texting, andI was like, Can we call? Sorry,
we can't and I was like, whatthe ham.
Jason Varga (04:22):
So something's up.
Unknown (04:24):
Yeah. So, you know, I was I was really thinking about
I was like, I don't know if thisis like, this is right. But I
let it go on. And then this isfor your anyone who's listening.
He's gonna learn a classicfraud, and not to follow this in
a second. So eventually, theysaid, you're hired and I said,
When are we going to be able tocall and they said, eventually I
(04:48):
was like, okay, that's weird. Sothey said, we are going to send
you a check in your email, andwe want you to print that out
and put it in your bank account.I said, okay, and I'm being a
recent graduate, I probably hada good like $5 in my bank
account. So it was awesomegetting the $2,000. But when I
(05:11):
printed it out and I mobilescan, you just put it over your
over the bet number the checkwith your phone. And it kept
going error, error, error error.I was like, what, what is going
on? And eventually so forth. Idid some research into it. And
that is one way that you can getyour bank account information
(05:34):
taken. So I did research and itwas and this is the sit on it
happening. So they you put themoney in. And then they asked
for 1000 back, and then theyhave the information for your
bank account. So when I when Iread all that I was like, Oh,
(05:56):
crap. And that's when I waslike, Well, alright, well, my
suspicion was right. This waslike, you know, somebody trying
to, you know, take take my moneyand take my information. So
that's when I took the numberthat they're texting me and then
looked them up. And then well,behold, it's two guys in Santa
(06:18):
Monica, California. And I'm surethey found they got lots of
other people's money, but Iwasn't going to take that. And I
ended up going drastic measuresand calling the Santa Monica
Police.
Jason Varga (06:31):
Yeah, unfortunately, like you said,
there's there's victims outthere who aren't so lucky. Yeah,
get caught up. I've hadexperiences too with doing a lot
of like, trying to do some saleson marketplace. And sometimes
like, oh, well, can I pay you inWalmart gift cards? And I'm
like, yeah. I mean, I do have togo to Walmart sometimes. But
like, something doesn't seem up.I was like, No, you had to
(06:53):
really kind of filter it out.But okay, so you were in
Georgia, you do all this stuff.But certain how was how do you
jump here? The rcbc? What ledyou here?
Unknown (07:00):
I'm so glad you asked that question. So I have a very
strong background in art, I haveworked on so much different like
concept artwork, I've donecharacter designs, I've worked
on a children's book I've doneso much. And unfortunately now
in 2023, there's the creativestrike going on. So that's
(07:23):
something I'm also verypassionate about of keeping
updated with everything on thecreative side. So during during
COVID, I wanted to learn, Iwanted to learn more. So I
wouldn't stay on contracts aftercontracts, because that's what
that's big corporations do theyput you under contract, contract
(07:44):
contract, and they never giveyou full time benefits. And
that's the goal of a collegestudent graduating full time
benefits, getting a salary job,and just having a successful
career. But you know, ever allthe creative, the creatives are
going through the strike rightnow if we don't want to be on
contract. So being 26 Now, Iwanted to learn something that
(08:04):
I'm familiar with, and learnmore about so I can get that,
you know, American dream ofsalary, full time job, nice,
successful life. So learningabout it, I found the I found
the love for it, because ithones a creative side and a
technical side. And I'll explainwhy. So having being in sort of
(08:25):
a technical field, you'reworking independently, and
there's going to be problemsthat that arise in the in your
career, and you have to use yourcreative side and go, Okay, how
am I going to do this? Becauseit's not going to be handed to
you. Because the program, thecomputer's gonna go, oops, we
don't like that. And you have tothink, Okay, well, how do I want
(08:47):
to do that, and working withyour right side of the brain and
go, Okay, well, there's, youcould do this, this, this, this
and this, or you could just lookit up on YouTube. But it really
makes your brain go. So it itkind of coexist with the
creative side and the technicalside. And that's why I wanted to
(09:08):
go into like this, this techfield then that are sorry, that
I was already familiar with. AndI just honed the skills, and I'm
glad I did because it's a reallynice field to be in.
Jason Varga (09:21):
Yeah, so the troubleshooting definitely makes
your brain think a little bit.Yeah, problem solve and such but
okay, so you're here studyingschool rcbc. Now, so what are
some of your few highlights?Which I'm going to talk about,
obviously, the the accoladesthat cyber cybersecurity club
received earlier this year, butwhat are some of your personal
few highlights so far? Wow.
Unknown (09:42):
So, um, I think probably meeting a bunch of like
friends who are here to likehelp each other and want to see
each other succeed is like thehighlight, like making new
friends of and then probablymeeting, I guess, meeting new
people. I'm very social person,I love to talk a little bit.
(10:03):
But, um, I guess the main goalis just learning. Like, you
know, you come into the cybersecurity industry and it's like,
how there's so much money in it,but it's like, yeah, that's a
bonus. But like, What aboutlike, the knowledge you learn
the things you think about thepeople you meet the networking
you have, like, it's, it's,that's the reward in itself. And
(10:26):
the money is like, oh, yeah,that's awesome. But like, again,
I'm very social person. So Ilove talking. I love meeting I
love and learning stories. Sothat's kind of like, glad I came
here.
Jason Varga (10:37):
Yeah, the, unfortunately the the funny the
financial side of the art worldis not as lucrative, say as
cybersecurity,
Unknown (10:44):
well, you say that. So I can talk about it for a while,
but I can, it really depends onthe level of master. It depends
if you're if you're mashmastered in something. So you
can come into the art world of,you know, I want to be a
children's book artist. And thatcan fluctuate up and down. If if
(11:08):
your children's book becomessuccessful, you make millions of
dollars like Dr. Seuss. Or ifyou want to go in the video game
industry, if you become aconcept artist, that's just step
one, to becoming a 20 year longconcept artists where you are
making up to 80 $90,000 a yearon your salary. But if you're an
(11:29):
entry level, honestly, this isthis could go for any industry
of just starting out small, butthe more you the more experience
you have, you're gonna get abigger salary. cybersecurity,
from what I know, and you candigress, if I'm wrong, it's the
same thing. It's like entrylevel will be like 50 $60,000 a
(11:50):
year. And but that could belike, the 10 years into a art
career if you if you manage toget like a full time job in the
art industry. And
Jason Varga (12:01):
sometimes our two is really it's commission based.
It's you said it's not a stable.
Unknown (12:05):
Yes, maybe that's. Do I regret going art school? No,
what I ever experience, would Iever suggest art school for
someone? Yes, I would. I thinkit's it's a fantastic
experience. College in generalis amazing. And I know it can be
scary for some people, and itcan be stressful. But the
benefits you get out of it islike leagues better than like
(12:29):
just staying at home and like,trying to do it yourself
Jason Varga (12:33):
now. Gotcha. Yeah, I can continue to talk. We do
have some other guests. I know.We want a little bit. So Roy,
how you doing? Good. Let's bringyou into the show here. So
what's your background story andyou know, what led you to rcbc.
Unknown (12:48):
So basically, I've been interested in computers my whole
life. I've been playing on acomputer since I was like a
toddler. So I always knew Iwanted to get into a computer it
related field. During highschool, I went to BCIT in
Medford. So that's a tradeschool for anyone who isn't
aware. I went, I went to theInformation Technology program
(13:11):
there. And that's where Istarted to learn about the
different fields in it andstarted to learn about
cybersecurity. And that's whereI knew I really wanted to go
down this path. Why was that?Um, it's just constant learning.
It's always learning about thenew thing because attackers are
always, you know, one stepahead. They're always, you know,
trying to do, they're always onestep ahead of the good guys. So
(13:32):
I always love that you're justconstantly learning, you're
always trying to, there's alwaysnew things happening. And I knew
that this was the field I reallywanted to get into with
computers. And really, thereason I came to rcbc is because
financial aid, it was waycheaper to go here than anywhere
else, and
Jason Varga (13:50):
especially with the three plus one program. Yeah,
yeah. And again, you're in acomputer and informatics. So
you're gonna go here and thenobviously you get your degree
from Rowan University, all withcybersecurity, in mind, but I'm
gonna talk about, you know, yourinternship you kind of got going
on, which I think is reallyawesome as well. But these are
the high accolades, right? Thisis what kind of put you on the
radar to my show and to thecampus as well. And I think it's
(14:12):
fantastic What the What's goingon with what you guys did with
the cybersecurity team. Andwe'll talk about the cyber bit
ICL collegiate cup in a secondbut let's talk about the
cybersecurity team. So what isit? The name of it, which I
thought was really clever, letyou tell the left
Unknown (14:27):
side barons? Yeah, so you know, it's pretty, you know,
cheesy Pong. Uber ICBC. So, sighbarons, we just kind of came up
with that because we worked lastminute, which would be called
the team. Sure it works. Andhonestly, I think it clicks. So
what do you what do you guys doin the club? So basically, what
we do in the club is we just theclub in general, because it's
outside of just a team ofpeople. It's for everybody.
(14:50):
Anybody interested incybersecurity to come learn,
expand their skills grow. Andyou know, because it's such a
collaborative thing. You can'tlearn everything by yourself.
Everybody has their day. fringestrengths are different
weaknesses. Absolutely. Soreally the club in general is to
help people learn, advance theircybersecurity career, learn,
again, get the skills they needto succeed in the real world. As
(15:12):
part of the team, basically,there's these competitions,
cyber cups, they all havedifferent couple different
names. Basically, they allrevolve around putting students
in the role of real worldprofessionals, you know, you
have to defend against anattack, or you have to go into
an already compromised networkand look through it to figure
out what happened. It's allbasically stuff we're learning
(15:33):
in our classes, but applied towhat you would have to do in the
real world. So it's a really,it's a really valuable learning
experience, because that's oneof the things that I feel like
sometimes school can, it doesn'tfully get right is that you
know, that translation into realworld knowledge. So what I
really liked about BCIT is thatyou got, you know, you got the
(15:54):
actual practical knowledge. Andso these these competitions and
the club, they help us get thatin a way that sometimes the
school can't necessarily make upfor it.
Jason Varga (16:02):
So speaking of the competition, is this the one of
the cups, the cyber bid Icocollegiate cup? Team plays six
in the country? Yes. Yes. Notthe state, the actual country?
Yeah. And yeah, nationwide.Okay. So what were you got? What
type of attack are you guysdealing with then?
Unknown (16:17):
So in that tournament, specifically, it was already
attacked, like we got, we got anetwork with devices that we had
to look through something hadalready happened. And our goal
was to remediate the issues goin and fix them, and also to
find evidence of what hadhappened. Because in the real
world, when your cybersecuritypersonnel, you know, doing
incident response, aftersomething's been hacked, you
(16:37):
can't just, you know, say, Oh,this is what happened, you have
to use that knowledge that datathat you find to prove what
happened. So that was really ourjob with this tournament. And we
were able to do that, mainlyjust through our critical
thinking, our teamwork, justthinking outside the box,
because a lot of the stuff wewere looking at, we didn't know
about, there was a lot of like,programming scripts and
(17:00):
languages we didn't know. So wehad to take that information and
kind of go through it and usethe, I guess, context clues of
what we knew, in order to figurethat out. And I really think
that's what got us such a highplacing isn't that we had spent
so long studying C Plus Plus orJava, it was just that we had
the critical thinking to look inthe right places and to look for
(17:21):
the right things, to find whatwe needed to score high.
Jason Varga (17:24):
So which makes it even more impressive, because
the fact that you said you'renot really knowing or you don't
have a strong knowledge in someof that script writing and then
to come and six on the country.Yeah. And you're, you're taking
down some top and some heavycompetition, too. Oh, yeah.
Unknown (17:35):
They're right. I mean, there was the actual Rowan
University there, right. Theyscored, I forget where they
were, but I think they were 17.There was Purdue, Texas a&m,
like big four year schools, thegovernment
Jason Varga (17:45):
team who are up against the government
institution, or they have Navy,navy, navy. Oh, defense
contracting. I think I wasreading it's still six by six
and the Coast Guard Coast Guard.Okay. All right. But still
Purdue Rollins? Yeah. We werekind of shocked. That's not a
competition. So how many were onthe team?
Unknown (18:04):
So for that competition, there were four of
us. This year, we've got Allisonand Nick, two new members. But
the four of us there was therewas me, Jordi, Foz. And Tavon.
You might have seen him around,especially if you're I work with
us all the time. He's awesome.Yeah, he's I know. Yeah.
Jason Varga (18:23):
So how did that make you guys feel, though, to
know, you know, you pulled itin, you know, one of the top 10
in the country, almost top five.
Unknown (18:29):
Honestly, at first, I was just kind of like, what,
like, I was just like, shocked.Like, I didn't really have like
a, like, initial like, Yeah, wedid. I was just like, wow, like,
I'd felt like because myexpectations like this is like
the second or third competitionwe did. So my expectations were
like, hey, if we can get top 10,that would be awesome. Yeah. So
it really just, it made me feelproud of that. Like we were able
(18:50):
to work together to get thatfarva result. And also it's made
me think, what are we going todo in the future?
Jason Varga (18:56):
And it's like, obviously, it's great for the
resume. Oh, yeah, you put thatin your portfolio that yeah, I
was on a team that finishedsixth on the country. Yeah. For
the cyber attack. So in thatcompetition alone, I just kind
of maybe already covered it, butI'll say how do you, you know,
how did that encourage youracademic growth?
Unknown (19:10):
Um, so one thing it kind of helps us like it helps
you figure out where you have tofocus on a little bit like there
were some things that like newtools that we worked with that
we kind of have realized, hey,maybe we should study these and
kind of get used to thesebecause in the real world, we
may have to accomplish them, Ihave to use that tool, or in one
of our classes, or this thesetools may come up. So it kind of
(19:31):
helps you figure out like whereyou actually have the knowledge
that because you're putting itto the test, you know, if you
don't if you what you can andcan't do that shows you pretty
much
Jason Varga (19:40):
yeah. So fast forward to now, obviously,
you're going to school, you'restudying it up and everything
else, but you also have aninternship. That's seems like
you're on your path to anexcellent career. Can you tell
us about this internship whereyou're at what you're doing?
Unknown (19:53):
Yeah. So I'm basically I'm working part time with the
Burlington County government. ITdepartments so I courthouses,
the jail animal shelter.Basically all the government
services at Burlington Countyhas offered, I help out with IT
support. Specifically, I'm onmore of the networking side. So
there's so much to it. It's notjust you know, coding and
(20:14):
programming. There's theirservers and there's networking.
There's, there's so much to it.What I do is I'm running cables,
I'm configuring, you know,switches, so that, you know,
basically making the trafficmove on the network. I
Jason Varga (20:27):
mean, talk to each other. Yeah, basically. So of
course, you're learning now,though, it's kind of help you
advance.
Unknown (20:31):
We're definitely definitely going on. Definitely.
Yeah. So um, I mean, lastsemester, I took a networking
Fundamentals course here. Andthat really kind of drilled my
head into like all the networklike everything, networking,
there's so there's so much toit, but that really helped me
figure that out. And I was ableto do more at the job because I
was like, Hey, I just learnedthis in class, can I do a
project or mess was somethingrelated to that, and it kind of
(20:52):
helps me learn on the, you know,hands on on the job, too.
Alright,
Jason Varga (20:56):
so what's the next step? Then? After three plus
one, you're looking to stay inthe province county department?
Unknown (21:01):
We're definitely for a few years because I mean, it's a
government job, you know, youget full time benefits and
Jason Varga (21:07):
all too well. Right here. Even at the school, we get
some excellent benefits, you getpension, which is a rarity these
days. That's the amount of timeoff even though I don't know
what cybersecurity how much timeyou get off. Because if you get
attacked or something, right,
Unknown (21:17):
yeah. So that is the one downside is like, yeah, you
know, you can get time offeverything. But if you know,
when things go down, you have tobe on call. You know, we've had
that I've, I haven't had toactually go in and help out. But
I've seen that happen. As I'vebeen there. There's, you know,
some server goes down orsomething happens on the
network, like, big thingshappen, where everybody has to
be hands on. Yep, hands on deck.So it's like, yeah, sometimes
(21:38):
you got to, you're gonna get acall at two in the morning. But
you know, hey, this, thisapplication is down. You got to
fix it right now.
Jason Varga (21:43):
Yeah. And but it's not often. So you're a pretty
good. Alright, so let's nowbring in the instructor here,
Bill, bang, right. How are wedoing? Doing great. Yeah. Well,
pretty. I was like a littleproud father moment here of your
team, do an excellent thiscompetition. But let's first
start out and find out, youknow, you know, so what exactly
do you teach here? What are CPCIP to
Unknown (22:04):
a gamut of things first, like programming. Roy was
mentioning, we teach that. Sothere's Python, there's C++ and
other programming classes. Sounder the informatics major, we
have a lot of the programmingclasses. In addition, there's a
lot of in IT world, there's allkinds of technology services,
(22:27):
from networking to operatingsystems, to cybersecurity
classes. So I need gamut ofthose areas. I cover almost all
of those.
Jason Varga (22:37):
So so how did you get here? rcbc? Like, what's
your background? Your current,you know, what got you got into
computers. And obviously,computers have changed from, you
know, from when computers were,I guess first evolving to us to
now what's going on with allthese tablets and touchscreens?
Yeah,
Unknown (22:51):
absolutely. I've seen it. I'm feel like a dinosaur.
I've seen a computer like, wasawesome, almost like a TV, Texas
Instrument, where I saw abouncing ball. I was a little
kid, I saw a bouncing ball on ascreen. And I said, I wonder if
I can bounce it a different way.And that's led to led me to the
(23:14):
computer programming. It was abasic computer program written.
And I tweaked around with it. Isaw this is interesting. And
then I, you know, I was a premed major, actually, I did all
of the computer pre med classesbiology, chemistry, physics,
organic and calculus, all theway many years ago, Temple
(23:35):
University. And then I alwayshad that bouncing ball interest.
So I said, I gotta, I gotta atleast focus on some of the
programming and focus on somecoding things. So I got into
that. So I ended up getting adegree in pre med, pre med, and
computer science. And that'swhere my lead my career, then it
(23:58):
just took me almost six years toget that. So I because I wasn't
sure which direction I want togo. I said, let me let me take a
little break from medicine.Instead of going to medical
school, I'll just work in thefield. And that's when.com era
was happening. So I thought,yeah, I'm a dinosaur so that I
(24:19):
witnessed the.com era calm. Andthat's when just having just
slight technology skill setwould make made you a super rich
company, even just having an Econference presence. I witnessed
that. So from all of thosetimes, all the way to now. I was
always on the forefront fightingthose battles of cybersecurity.
Jason Varga (24:43):
It's amazing to talk to some of the students
when I was teaching because it'slike, yeah, there was a time
there was no internet. Allright, and people they look at
you like they they can't livewithout internet right now. But
evolved in government, they saidthe.com and the geo cities are
watching a little emojis withlike little slips. and 11 guy,
you know, trying to build thoseweb pages outside dill little
(25:04):
coding myself, though not nottoo excited.
Unknown (25:06):
I was I was on the forefront of the Internet era
that was evolving, like we werecommunicating. But we use
something prior to the internet,it was like bulletin boards, we
use the phone systems, to sharefiles and communicate and do
other things. So I, I ran one ofthe biggest one in the East
Coast. And then internetevolved, and I was there. So
(25:29):
what led me do rcbc was, youknow, I've always had all these
interests, I work in theindustry a lot, still very
active in the industry. And justthroughout my career, I worked
in the field, and then I in theevenings or during class time, I
shared what I did in theindustry. So that's our always
been connected that way. Andthen currently, just having a
(25:53):
privilege to work in the school,and then finish off your
doctorate degree in artificialintelligence, it's great to
have. So having that balance,having a connection in the
industry, having great studentsyou can interact with, and
having the ability to finishyour doctorate will be great.
And that's what led me to here.
Jason Varga (26:13):
And well speaking of interacting with the
students, you know, you playthat major role and the team
getting six in the country atthat cyber bed ICL collegiate
cup. So first of all, how'd thatmake you feel?
Unknown (26:23):
I was amazing. Just having, you know, team come
together, just just some of thechallenges of young folks is
amazing, you know, you just haveto have a certain discipline,
balance, you know, even roidsaying some of the things that
they were using was mostlytroubleshooting, but having an
overall understanding of it, howit works, all of those things
(26:46):
coming together and playing agood roll in that and just, you
know, encouraging the team thatwe can do it, you know, don't
don't worry about who'scompeting, do your best you can,
I even remember where we were,you know, during one of the
attacks in class, there was alive attack happening and, and
all the team was panicking, andwe were, we weren't sure what we
(27:08):
were supposed to do, we evenreached out to them. And I said
just use your natural ability totroubleshoot, use, you know, use
your team effort that we havecollaborate, and, and in the in
the cybersecurity world, but Isee from all from the
perspective of the earlier daysto now being on the forefront.
(27:29):
It's constantly evolvingscience, nobody has a clue. So
just thinking outside the box,just like Roy's mentioning that
we were just trying to figureout what was going on. We didn't
know this, we know nobody knowsit, even somebody like me,
coming from that kind ofbackground. There are so many
scripts, so many languages, it'ssolving a puzzle. So just having
(27:52):
the ability to troubleshoot anda strong team and some general
foundational knowledge of basicprogramming and IP skills will
take you far in this industry.
Jason Varga (28:03):
Sounds good a good coach there. Yeah, good mentor.
As far as my questions of like,you know, what was what was some
of that guidance that youprovided but you just you know,
answered that right there and aswell as what the takeaway
because it looks like from theprevious competitions you're
taking away and applying it tothe next one and then as you
should apply it to the next onebecause you want to be able to
continue to grow and you know,understand and be prepared for
(28:23):
the next attack of the nextcompetition and such which you
know, we're ready for hopefullybecome a top in the country this
time have had that was the planthat top three, but Okay, so in
addition to winning this awardwinning, you know, cybersecurity
team that you're involved withthe college also received some
extremely important funding,cyber cybersecurity grant
funding, which we learned aboutwhen you guys did the
(28:44):
demonstration to the collegelast week, which is an awesome,
you know, demonstration, by theway, is again, we go for the
importance of CybersecurityAwareness month here in October,
but the college we found out isgoing to be offering or
receiving $1 million from theNew Jersey higher education
technology infrastructure fundthat will upgrade and improve
computer networks and Wi Fi andmake them faster and more
secure. They're going to get$400,000 from the National
(29:06):
Science Foundation as part of amulti college concert torium
aiming to strengthenpartnerships among colleges and
employers in emergingtechnological fields. Starting
with cybersecurity effort alsostrives to boost diversity in
these fields. And the New JerseyCybersecurity and Communications
Integration Cell accepted rcbcinto the state and local
cybersecurity grant program tohelp the public institutions
(29:27):
manage and reduce systematiccyber risk. Can you elaborate a
little bit more and like justhow important that funding is
here? Oh, absolutely.
Unknown (29:34):
Everything costs money to improve your infrastructure
and in all of those settings. Sohaving the you know, some of
this funding will help usimprove our curriculums. We're
offering some of the curriculumthat uses cloud technology now,
which we spin our servers in thecloud, we define our security
(29:54):
there. So that gives you like aanother lens into security how
to secure an order integrationssecurity infrastructure, and
having the funding, you know,giving us the ability to improve
our systems improve our ITservices. It in general, as we
look at it, every three to fiveyears is almost 180 shift. So
(30:18):
it's completely outdated and newsets of technology comes in. So
having that funding is verycritical for the organization,
and helping us improve thecurriculum overall,
Jason Varga (30:27):
I think if you keep winning more competitions, more
funding is gonna be coming in.That's for sure. But alright, so
some group questions here, okay.Because again, we're trying to
as we on the program, pod here,we just tried to take a little
of deep dive, but still keep iton a one on one level for maybe
someone that's trying to getinto cybersecurity, what they're
about to get into, or, you know,what that career is about, and
maybe they're a new student, notsure what they want to do, and
(30:48):
maybe you're an art student, andyou're looking to switch, you
know, switch over. So, andagain, this is open to open to
the group here. So anyone cantake the lead, you can bounce
comments off of each other,what, what advice would you give
to an individual looking for apossible career in
cybersecurity?
(31:08):
Why?
Unknown (31:10):
I mean, when I, sorry to cut you off, when when I was
researching into it, I had apassion of a fiery burning
passion of vengeance. I said,Well, if I could stop someone
from doing it to me, why can Istop doing it for other people?
(31:33):
And then that's when I foundlike the the fiery passion in my
heart to save internet lives andbank accounts.
Right? So one thing like, I wantto like not to put it down, but
to guys temper people'sexpectations, don't expect it to
be like the movies right off thebat, you know, yeah. And like
(31:55):
cybersecurity is just one partof it. And when we're here, we
have to learn about a lot of it.And only very brief parts of it,
we have to learn about operatingsystems and networking and
system administration,altogether, our cybersecurity
degree. So I think one thing forpeople I would tell people is to
really like, Get up, getpassionate about computers, get
(32:16):
passionate about just workingwith the technology, not just
about the cybersecurity being ahacker getting the six figure
salary, because if you do that,you're going to end up just
burnout. And I've seen that withsome of my classmates, some of
my friends that they it's notliving up to the hype. So I
think that's one thing forpeople is like, there's a lot of
buzz around cybersecurity rightnow. Yep, there's a lot of buzz
(32:37):
around big, you know, big moneyjobs, you know, go to a go get a
degree, you'll get some crazysalary. But that's just not the
reality of it. So I guess I'dsay, make sure you actually have
a passion for it before justtrying to chase a salary.
Yeah, absolutely. I'll piggybackon what Roy is saying. Be ready
to do hard work. That's that'sone of the, you know, misnomer
(33:00):
about cybersecurity. Justbecause you've learned how to
run a script, or run some, somewebsite hack. And then you're
all of a sudden cybersecurityexpert. Or if you learn some
tool, like snort, or Splunk, orsomething like that, those are
those tools are going to comeand go. The most critical skill
(33:22):
set is still programming, youstill have to understand how
computers think, and learningprogramming, very, very
disciplined world. We haveextensive set of programming
courses in our in ourcurriculum. And then secondly,
understanding networking, that'sa very skilled area that are
(33:44):
very important, and verydifficult, because you have to
learn how the entry points to anenvironments are defined the
routing, the switching, the IPS,the Wi Fi, how to secure each of
them. And each, there are manyvendors, many devices and many
interfaces. So my ultimate thingif somebody is interested in
(34:05):
cybersecurity, I will certainlywelcome them. We need more good
guys or good folks in thecybersecurity versus bad. And we
want them we need that battle.We need to be on this good side
and train folks. But get readyto do the hard work. And then
ultimately, there's plenty ofopportunity. I'm I've been
(34:30):
active in the industry for 30years. It's nice. It's nice to
brag where just from my LinkedInprofile, I'm over. My doctorate
isn't going to be in computerscience. But given my background
in cloud engineering, a lot ofthe security accolades I carry
in lots of certification andCisco and AWS, just having a
(34:54):
consulting firm that helps theindustry and there's a
tremendous need there. That's,that's what I would encourage
anybody joining cybersecurity,we do the hard work, there's
gonna be plenty of opportunityfor you, for the industry and
beyond.
Jason Varga (35:09):
And we're teaching some of those basics and
fundamentals here. Andabsolutely, they
Unknown (35:13):
all of our courses, majority of them have some
certification component also,which industry values it. So
right at the first, first twoyears of your college, you're
getting industry relevant skillset. And that attracts a lot of
employers, for instance, even wehave a cis 138, and a plus
(35:35):
certification that goes with it.Even though we're not teaching
towards certification, you'regetting an actual college
credit, you're learning theactual technology. And if you
choose to, you can go ahead andspecialize in that industry
credential, and have a value inthe industry. So that gives us a
combined version of thiscoverage
Jason Varga (35:56):
is fantastic. So as we're talking here about rcbc,
too, and again, earlier, as Isaid, we're rolling out that
multifactor authentication loginsystem already here for Baron
one. But what are some otherbasic fundamentals that online
users can use to protectthemselves from a cyber attack?
Unknown (36:12):
My My view is, online users, just like Allison was
saying, there's lots of redflags, you know, our call, I
often get these calls, hey,you're being investigated for
tax fraud or red flag rightthere. You know, just if there
is a call, or there's a tax, orthere's a phishing email, those
(36:36):
are the three major things.Nobody's gonna reach out to you
for anything for those threemethods. Just do your due
diligence, make sure don't shareyour information, just be on the
guard. And just just being asavvy online user. When you go
to any website, be sure thatsite is what you're visiting is
(36:59):
reputable. Especially when youget like a free this or free
that or free game. That's you'rejust fooling yourself. You're
gonna crap get trapped into this
Jason Varga (37:09):
another red flag. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So
should users then, you know,have the same passwords? Maybe
this is a question for me. ButI'm usually pretty good from
computers anyway. But shouldusers have same passwords across
different accounts? Or how oftenshould they change them? Change
it? Please. And then Okay, sowhat if you're like me, though,
(37:29):
the best advice becausesometimes you don't want to
write it down, I feel a littlesketchy putting like, my wife
has all her passwords in or noteto like her Mac notes. And I
still feel like Big Brother outthere. Could someone still hack
those notes? But is thereprograms out there or something
to if you have 20 differentaccounts, you have Netflix,
social media, email bankingsystems? Like what do you think
is the best practice for thatthere's
Unknown (37:49):
actually software out there called password managers
like those apps on your phone, Ithink one's called Dashlane.
Basically, you it generatesthese gibberish passwords that
are like 30 characters long. Andthen lets you basically just
auto input them into, you know,whatever login you're using, so
you can store your passwords inthere so that you don't have to
put them on your notes, whichisn't super safe, or you know,
(38:11):
write them down on a post itnote. And it takes care of that
hassle for you. Because you justhave to pretty much hit a button
on your phone and it puts thepassword in. So yeah, if your
phone gets hacked, it couldstill, you know, get out there.
But that's not how most peopleare hacking anymore. It's you
know, social engineering.They're, you know, doing the
phishing emails or the calls,like Professor Baig was just
(38:31):
talking about or how Allison gotscammed. So if you want to, you
know, relieve the hassle ofhaving to remember a bunch of
different passwords, there issoftware out there that you can
install.
Jason Varga (38:41):
It's good to know, I was gonna change the password.
Usually, we're changing ourshere. I just go the next number
up. For me, that's just the wayI do it. Like this way. It's all
in my head. So they can't hackmy brain. Hopefully there but
alright, so we got all the youknow, the technical stuff, you
know, the personal experiencesand everything else. But as
something on the show here, Ilike to kind of wrap it up with
some cheesy dad jokes. You talkabout the side barons, and your
(39:03):
little pawns there. So I havesome puns of my own kind of
maybe ended up on a little bitof a good note and we'll we'll
say So first, I want you to tellme how did the hacker escape the
police how Roy's thinking rightthere. I'm
Unknown (39:17):
trying to think
Jason Varga (39:18):
how did the hacker escape the police? You
ransomware? No, no. Okay. Allright. So we're talking about
the router itself and all thisother stuff. Why did the router
go to the therapist? silence Sowhy did the router go to the
(39:39):
therapists? It was feelingdisconnected. Yeah, all right.
And one last one here. Why didthe hacker bring a ladder to the
job interview?
Unknown (39:52):
So he could escape? No.
Jason Varga (39:56):
Had to get over the firewall. Oh, that's gonna do it
for us, folks. Alright, so it isgoing to wrap it up here for the
episode on the program pod. Hopeyou enjoyed today's show. I do
want to thank guests again todayAllison Warren, Roy Kramer, Bill
big, who all brought us a littlebit more insight in rcbc
(40:16):
cybersecurity program theComputing and Informatics
programs here at rcbc. Butbefore we sign off, anyone want
to plug anything for how to getinvolved with the psi barons,
any? Hi mom?
Unknown (40:27):
Well, Thursdays at 2pm in tech 317 Is the cybersecurity
club meeting. So if you'reinterested in cybersecurity, you
know, come out, check out whatwe're doing
Jason Varga (40:37):
right on right here the Mount Laurel campus by us.
Unknown (40:42):
Stay safe. Change your passwords to random letters.
And mine is a plenty of coursesin our in our curriculum to
introduce all kinds of passionsand focus, especially
cybersecurity. And then ourcybersecurity team. It has six
members, some of thecompetitions are up to 12
(41:04):
members, so it's still open.Come check me out, contact me
and we'll get you into theprogram.
Jason Varga (41:09):
Sounds good. We're getting I'm Dave, Oregon. If you
want to learn more about rcbcprograms like we just talked
about, you can visit rcbc.eduand for other rcbc podcasts we
have to offer, including theBaron as podcast highlighting
powerful women of BurlingtonCounty you can visit
rcbc.edu/podcast Also be sure tosubscribe to the program pod on
any platform where he gets yourpodcasts till next time. Thanks
(41:30):
for listening. And let's likeAllison said, change those
passwords.
Welcome to the program pod a national award
winning program on the rcbcPodcast Network which takes a
deep dive into the programsoffered at rcbc. through
different perspectives ofstudents, faculty and employers.
That's right. Hello and welcometo the program pod as we said a
national award winning and justfinding out too, for another
award in this year's NCAA MPRbattalions award, whether it's
(00:23):
going to be gold, silver orbronze, we'll find out we'll let
you know but it's not about ustoday. It's about cybersecurity.
As we are going to be taking alittle bit of deep dive from
different perspectives withinthat particular program again,
the host J. Varga that is me.And while it's October its
Cybersecurity Awareness Month inrcbc has been taking on its own
measures promoting the importantmeasures needed to protect
(00:46):
yourself in the cyber worldwhich also included rolling out
the required multifactorauthentication steps and
accessing their Behrmanaccounts. Why is this important?
Well, why do you ask thatbecause I have some fancy old
facts that says about whatpeople been experiencing with
cybersecurity because accordingto AG cybersecurity services, an
estimated 53 point 35 million UScitizens were affected by
(01:08):
cybercrime in the first half of2022. Between July 2020 And June
2021, the US was the mosttargeted country for cyber
attacks accounting for 46% ofthe attacks globally. Also US
citizens lost in $6.9 billionand 2021 to cyber related
crimes, including romance scams,whatever that is 950 or 956
million investment scams 1.4billion and business email
compromise of 2.3 9 billion. Sowhy is this important? Well,
(01:30):
that's what we're here to talkabout. So it's a coincidence
that we're doing all this inOctober. Maybe not, I think so.
But if it's, if so, you're readyfor to join today's here and
careers, HIPAA security. Theshow is joining us for you
today. It's Alison Warren. Here,a current rcbc student. Alison,
welcome to the show. Thank youso much for having me, Jay.
You're welcome. Roy Kramer, alsoa current rcbc student and
(01:53):
member of the suberin securityClub, which we're gonna talk
about in just a little bit. Alsothree plus one Computing and
Informatics major. Thanks forhaving us on. Yep. And Nabeel
Baig, that big bill. Alright,we're gonna do that nice and
easy. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Ourinstructor here at rcbc for
computing and informatics aspart of the stem division,
specifically engineering andtechnology. But as always like
(02:16):
to start with some with theladies first. So Allison, we're
gonna start with you. All right.So I was just talking about some
of those numbers there withcybersecurity and citizens being
attacked and well happens to beyou were one of them, right?
Unknown (02:30):
Yes. I say that but grudgingly. So me and my team
did a recent presentation. Asyou stated, we won a award which
we I think we did a fantasticjob on demonstrating a live
cyber attack. And I took thebull by the horns and what we
(02:52):
did the intro and conclusion ofour presentation, and through my
public speaking class, I learnedthat you need a good hook. And
back in 2020, I was convenientlyhad a cyber scam. And so back in
(03:16):
2020, I graduated my four yearsof college at Moore College of
Art Design, fantastic school.And I moved to Georgia with my
mom, because I found a good agood like settlement kind of
starting job there. i It was acontract work. So I did that for
(03:36):
a little while, but thencontracts only last for so long.
So I was looking for more jobsin the meantime. And when you
graduate college, you're superexcited. You want to get right
into the working world. So Itook almost anything that was
given to me. So when I got it,it already it already made my
stomach like, like turn becauseI got a text message. Not a call
(03:59):
an email. And but you know, Iwas just trying to remain
hopeful of okay, yeah, this isgonna be job number two. And so
when they're texting back andforth, it was it was texting,
like an interviewer texting, andI was like, Can we call? Sorry,
we can't and I was like, whatthe ham.
Jason Varga (04:22):
So something's up.
Unknown (04:24):
Yeah. So, you know, I was I was really thinking about
I was like, I don't know if thisis like, this is right. But I
let it go on. And then this isfor your anyone who's listening.
He's gonna learn a classicfraud, and not to follow this in
a second. So eventually, theysaid, you're hired and I said,
When are we going to be able tocall and they said, eventually I
(04:48):
was like, okay, that's weird. Sothey said, we are going to send
you a check in your email, andwe want you to print that out
and put it in your bank account.I said, okay, and I'm being a
recent graduate, I probably hada good like $5 in my bank
account. So it was awesomegetting the $2,000. But when I
(05:11):
printed it out and I mobilescan, you just put it over your
over the bet number the checkwith your phone. And it kept
going error, error, error error.I was like, what, what is going
on? And eventually so forth. Idid some research into it. And
that is one way that you can getyour bank account information
(05:34):
taken. So I did research and itwas and this is the sit on it
happening. So they you put themoney in. And then they asked
for 1000 back, and then theyhave the information for your
bank account. So when I when Iread all that I was like, Oh,
(05:56):
crap. And that's when I waslike, Well, alright, well, my
suspicion was right. This waslike, you know, somebody trying
to, you know, take take my moneyand take my information. So
that's when I took the numberthat they're texting me and then
looked them up. And then well,behold, it's two guys in Santa
(06:18):
Monica, California. And I'm surethey found they got lots of
other people's money, but Iwasn't going to take that. And I
ended up going drastic measuresand calling the Santa Monica
Police.
Jason Varga (06:31):
Yeah, unfortunately, like you said,
there's there's victims outthere who aren't so lucky. Yeah,
get caught up. I've hadexperiences too with doing a lot
of like, trying to do some saleson marketplace. And sometimes
like, oh, well, can I pay you inWalmart gift cards? And I'm
like, yeah. I mean, I do have togo to Walmart sometimes. But
like, something doesn't seem up.I was like, No, you had to
(06:53):
really kind of filter it out.But okay, so you were in
Georgia, you do all this stuff.But certain how was how do you
jump here? The rcbc? What ledyou here?
Unknown (07:00):
I'm so glad you asked that question. So I have a very
strong background in art, I haveworked on so much different like
concept artwork, I've donecharacter designs, I've worked
on a children's book I've doneso much. And unfortunately now
in 2023, there's the creativestrike going on. So that's
(07:23):
something I'm also verypassionate about of keeping
updated with everything on thecreative side. So during during
COVID, I wanted to learn, Iwanted to learn more. So I
wouldn't stay on contracts aftercontracts, because that's what
that's big corporations do theyput you under contract, contract
(07:44):
contract, and they never giveyou full time benefits. And
that's the goal of a collegestudent graduating full time
benefits, getting a salary job,and just having a successful
career. But you know, ever allthe creative, the creatives are
going through the strike rightnow if we don't want to be on
contract. So being 26 Now, Iwanted to learn something that
(08:04):
I'm familiar with, and learnmore about so I can get that,
you know, American dream ofsalary, full time job, nice,
successful life. So learningabout it, I found the I found
the love for it, because ithones a creative side and a
technical side. And I'll explainwhy. So having being in sort of
(08:25):
a technical field, you'reworking independently, and
there's going to be problemsthat that arise in the in your
career, and you have to use yourcreative side and go, Okay, how
am I going to do this? Becauseit's not going to be handed to
you. Because the program, thecomputer's gonna go, oops, we
don't like that. And you have tothink, Okay, well, how do I want
(08:47):
to do that, and working withyour right side of the brain and
go, Okay, well, there's, youcould do this, this, this, this
and this, or you could just lookit up on YouTube. But it really
makes your brain go. So it itkind of coexist with the
creative side and the technicalside. And that's why I wanted to
(09:08):
go into like this, this techfield then that are sorry, that
I was already familiar with. AndI just honed the skills, and I'm
glad I did because it's a reallynice field to be in.
Jason Varga (09:21):
Yeah, so the troubleshooting definitely makes
your brain think a little bit.Yeah, problem solve and such but
okay, so you're here studyingschool rcbc. Now, so what are
some of your few highlights?Which I'm going to talk about,
obviously, the the accoladesthat cyber cybersecurity club
received earlier this year, butwhat are some of your personal
few highlights so far? Wow.
Unknown (09:42):
So, um, I think probably meeting a bunch of like
friends who are here to likehelp each other and want to see
each other succeed is like thehighlight, like making new
friends of and then probablymeeting, I guess, meeting new
people. I'm very social person,I love to talk a little bit.
(10:03):
But, um, I guess the main goalis just learning. Like, you
know, you come into the cybersecurity industry and it's like,
how there's so much money in it,but it's like, yeah, that's a
bonus. But like, What aboutlike, the knowledge you learn
the things you think about thepeople you meet the networking
you have, like, it's, it's,that's the reward in itself. And
(10:26):
the money is like, oh, yeah,that's awesome. But like, again,
I'm very social person. So Ilove talking. I love meeting I
love and learning stories. Sothat's kind of like, glad I came
here.
Jason Varga (10:37):
Yeah, the, unfortunately the the funny the
financial side of the art worldis not as lucrative, say as
cybersecurity,
Unknown (10:44):
well, you say that. So I can talk about it for a while,
but I can, it really depends onthe level of master. It depends
if you're if you're mashmastered in something. So you
can come into the art world of,you know, I want to be a
children's book artist. And thatcan fluctuate up and down. If if
(11:08):
your children's book becomessuccessful, you make millions of
dollars like Dr. Seuss. Or ifyou want to go in the video game
industry, if you become aconcept artist, that's just step
one, to becoming a 20 year longconcept artists where you are
making up to 80 $90,000 a yearon your salary. But if you're an
(11:29):
entry level, honestly, this isthis could go for any industry
of just starting out small, butthe more you the more experience
you have, you're gonna get abigger salary. cybersecurity,
from what I know, and you candigress, if I'm wrong, it's the
same thing. It's like entrylevel will be like 50 $60,000 a
(11:50):
year. And but that could belike, the 10 years into a art
career if you if you manage toget like a full time job in the
art industry. And
Jason Varga (12:01):
sometimes our two is really it's commission based.
It's you said it's not a stable.
Unknown (12:05):
Yes, maybe that's. Do I regret going art school? No,
what I ever experience, would Iever suggest art school for
someone? Yes, I would. I thinkit's it's a fantastic
experience. College in generalis amazing. And I know it can be
scary for some people, and itcan be stressful. But the
benefits you get out of it islike leagues better than like
(12:29):
just staying at home and like,trying to do it yourself
Jason Varga (12:33):
now. Gotcha. Yeah, I can continue to talk. We do
have some other guests. I know.We want a little bit. So Roy,
how you doing? Good. Let's bringyou into the show here. So
what's your background story andyou know, what led you to rcbc.
Unknown (12:48):
So basically, I've been interested in computers my whole
life. I've been playing on acomputer since I was like a
toddler. So I always knew Iwanted to get into a computer it
related field. During highschool, I went to BCIT in
Medford. So that's a tradeschool for anyone who isn't
aware. I went, I went to theInformation Technology program
(13:11):
there. And that's where Istarted to learn about the
different fields in it andstarted to learn about
cybersecurity. And that's whereI knew I really wanted to go
down this path. Why was that?Um, it's just constant learning.
It's always learning about thenew thing because attackers are
always, you know, one stepahead. They're always, you know,
trying to do, they're always onestep ahead of the good guys. So
(13:32):
I always love that you're justconstantly learning, you're
always trying to, there's alwaysnew things happening. And I knew
that this was the field I reallywanted to get into with
computers. And really, thereason I came to rcbc is because
financial aid, it was waycheaper to go here than anywhere
else, and
Jason Varga (13:50):
especially with the three plus one program. Yeah,
yeah. And again, you're in acomputer and informatics. So
you're gonna go here and thenobviously you get your degree
from Rowan University, all withcybersecurity, in mind, but I'm
gonna talk about, you know, yourinternship you kind of got going
on, which I think is reallyawesome as well. But these are
the high accolades, right? Thisis what kind of put you on the
radar to my show and to thecampus as well. And I think it's
(14:12):
fantastic What the What's goingon with what you guys did with
the cybersecurity team. Andwe'll talk about the cyber bit
ICL collegiate cup in a secondbut let's talk about the
cybersecurity team. So what isit? The name of it, which I
thought was really clever, letyou tell the left
Unknown (14:27):
side barons? Yeah, so you know, it's pretty, you know,
cheesy Pong. Uber ICBC. So, sighbarons, we just kind of came up
with that because we worked lastminute, which would be called
the team. Sure it works. Andhonestly, I think it clicks. So
what do you what do you guys doin the club? So basically, what
we do in the club is we just theclub in general, because it's
outside of just a team ofpeople. It's for everybody.
(14:50):
Anybody interested incybersecurity to come learn,
expand their skills grow. Andyou know, because it's such a
collaborative thing. You can'tlearn everything by yourself.
Everybody has their day. fringestrengths are different
weaknesses. Absolutely. Soreally the club in general is to
help people learn, advance theircybersecurity career, learn,
again, get the skills they needto succeed in the real world. As
(15:12):
part of the team, basically,there's these competitions,
cyber cups, they all havedifferent couple different
names. Basically, they allrevolve around putting students
in the role of real worldprofessionals, you know, you
have to defend against anattack, or you have to go into
an already compromised networkand look through it to figure
out what happened. It's allbasically stuff we're learning
(15:33):
in our classes, but applied towhat you would have to do in the
real world. So it's a really,it's a really valuable learning
experience, because that's oneof the things that I feel like
sometimes school can, it doesn'tfully get right is that you
know, that translation into realworld knowledge. So what I
really liked about BCIT is thatyou got, you know, you got the
(15:54):
actual practical knowledge. Andso these these competitions and
the club, they help us get thatin a way that sometimes the
school can't necessarily make upfor it.
Jason Varga (16:02):
So speaking of the competition, is this the one of
the cups, the cyber bid Icocollegiate cup? Team plays six
in the country? Yes. Yes. Notthe state, the actual country?
Yeah. And yeah, nationwide.Okay. So what were you got? What
type of attack are you guysdealing with then?
Unknown (16:17):
So in that tournament, specifically, it was already
attacked, like we got, we got anetwork with devices that we had
to look through something hadalready happened. And our goal
was to remediate the issues goin and fix them, and also to
find evidence of what hadhappened. Because in the real
world, when your cybersecuritypersonnel, you know, doing
incident response, aftersomething's been hacked, you
(16:37):
can't just, you know, say, Oh,this is what happened, you have
to use that knowledge that datathat you find to prove what
happened. So that was really ourjob with this tournament. And we
were able to do that, mainlyjust through our critical
thinking, our teamwork, justthinking outside the box,
because a lot of the stuff wewere looking at, we didn't know
about, there was a lot of like,programming scripts and
(17:00):
languages we didn't know. So wehad to take that information and
kind of go through it and usethe, I guess, context clues of
what we knew, in order to figurethat out. And I really think
that's what got us such a highplacing isn't that we had spent
so long studying C Plus Plus orJava, it was just that we had
the critical thinking to look inthe right places and to look for
(17:21):
the right things, to find whatwe needed to score high.
Jason Varga (17:24):
So which makes it even more impressive, because
the fact that you said you'renot really knowing or you don't
have a strong knowledge in someof that script writing and then
to come and six on the country.Yeah. And you're, you're taking
down some top and some heavycompetition, too. Oh, yeah.
Unknown (17:35):
They're right. I mean, there was the actual Rowan
University there, right. Theyscored, I forget where they
were, but I think they were 17.There was Purdue, Texas a&m,
like big four year schools, thegovernment
Jason Varga (17:45):
team who are up against the government
institution, or they have Navy,navy, navy. Oh, defense
contracting. I think I wasreading it's still six by six
and the Coast Guard Coast Guard.Okay. All right. But still
Purdue Rollins? Yeah. We werekind of shocked. That's not a
competition. So how many were onthe team?
Unknown (18:04):
So for that competition, there were four of
us. This year, we've got Allisonand Nick, two new members. But
the four of us there was therewas me, Jordi, Foz. And Tavon.
You might have seen him around,especially if you're I work with
us all the time. He's awesome.Yeah, he's I know. Yeah.
Jason Varga (18:23):
So how did that make you guys feel, though, to
know, you know, you pulled itin, you know, one of the top 10
in the country, almost top five.
Unknown (18:29):
Honestly, at first, I was just kind of like, what,
like, I was just like, shocked.Like, I didn't really have like
a, like, initial like, Yeah, wedid. I was just like, wow, like,
I'd felt like because myexpectations like this is like
the second or third competitionwe did. So my expectations were
like, hey, if we can get top 10,that would be awesome. Yeah. So
it really just, it made me feelproud of that. Like we were able
(18:50):
to work together to get thatfarva result. And also it's made
me think, what are we going todo in the future?
Jason Varga (18:56):
And it's like, obviously, it's great for the
resume. Oh, yeah, you put thatin your portfolio that yeah, I
was on a team that finishedsixth on the country. Yeah. For
the cyber attack. So in thatcompetition alone, I just kind
of maybe already covered it, butI'll say how do you, you know,
how did that encourage youracademic growth?
Unknown (19:10):
Um, so one thing it kind of helps us like it helps
you figure out where you have tofocus on a little bit like there
were some things that like newtools that we worked with that
we kind of have realized, hey,maybe we should study these and
kind of get used to thesebecause in the real world, we
may have to accomplish them, Ihave to use that tool, or in one
of our classes, or this thesetools may come up. So it kind of
(19:31):
helps you figure out like whereyou actually have the knowledge
that because you're putting itto the test, you know, if you
don't if you what you can andcan't do that shows you pretty
much
Jason Varga (19:40):
yeah. So fast forward to now, obviously,
you're going to school, you'restudying it up and everything
else, but you also have aninternship. That's seems like
you're on your path to anexcellent career. Can you tell
us about this internship whereyou're at what you're doing?
Unknown (19:53):
Yeah. So I'm basically I'm working part time with the
Burlington County government. ITdepartments so I courthouses,
the jail animal shelter.Basically all the government
services at Burlington Countyhas offered, I help out with IT
support. Specifically, I'm onmore of the networking side. So
there's so much to it. It's notjust you know, coding and
(20:14):
programming. There's theirservers and there's networking.
There's, there's so much to it.What I do is I'm running cables,
I'm configuring, you know,switches, so that, you know,
basically making the trafficmove on the network. I
Jason Varga (20:27):
mean, talk to each other. Yeah, basically. So of
course, you're learning now,though, it's kind of help you
advance.
Unknown (20:31):
We're definitely definitely going on. Definitely.
Yeah. So um, I mean, lastsemester, I took a networking
Fundamentals course here. Andthat really kind of drilled my
head into like all the networklike everything, networking,
there's so there's so much toit, but that really helped me
figure that out. And I was ableto do more at the job because I
was like, Hey, I just learnedthis in class, can I do a
project or mess was somethingrelated to that, and it kind of
(20:52):
helps me learn on the, you know,hands on on the job, too.
Alright,
Jason Varga (20:56):
so what's the next step? Then? After three plus
one, you're looking to stay inthe province county department?
Unknown (21:01):
We're definitely for a few years because I mean, it's a
government job, you know, youget full time benefits and
Jason Varga (21:07):
all too well. Right here. Even at the school, we get
some excellent benefits, you getpension, which is a rarity these
days. That's the amount of timeoff even though I don't know
what cybersecurity how much timeyou get off. Because if you get
attacked or something, right,
Unknown (21:17):
yeah. So that is the one downside is like, yeah, you
know, you can get time offeverything. But if you know,
when things go down, you have tobe on call. You know, we've had
that I've, I haven't had toactually go in and help out. But
I've seen that happen. As I'vebeen there. There's, you know,
some server goes down orsomething happens on the
network, like, big thingshappen, where everybody has to
be hands on. Yep, hands on deck.So it's like, yeah, sometimes
(21:38):
you got to, you're gonna get acall at two in the morning. But
you know, hey, this, thisapplication is down. You got to
fix it right now.
Jason Varga (21:43):
Yeah. And but it's not often. So you're a pretty
good. Alright, so let's nowbring in the instructor here,
Bill, bang, right. How are wedoing? Doing great. Yeah. Well,
pretty. I was like a littleproud father moment here of your
team, do an excellent thiscompetition. But let's first
start out and find out, youknow, you know, so what exactly
do you teach here? What are CPCIP to
Unknown (22:04):
a gamut of things first, like programming. Roy was
mentioning, we teach that. Sothere's Python, there's C++ and
other programming classes. Sounder the informatics major, we
have a lot of the programmingclasses. In addition, there's a
lot of in IT world, there's allkinds of technology services,
(22:27):
from networking to operatingsystems, to cybersecurity
classes. So I need gamut ofthose areas. I cover almost all
of those.
Jason Varga (22:37):
So so how did you get here? rcbc? Like, what's
your background? Your current,you know, what got you got into
computers. And obviously,computers have changed from, you
know, from when computers were,I guess first evolving to us to
now what's going on with allthese tablets and touchscreens?
Yeah,
Unknown (22:51):
absolutely. I've seen it. I'm feel like a dinosaur.
I've seen a computer like, wasawesome, almost like a TV, Texas
Instrument, where I saw abouncing ball. I was a little
kid, I saw a bouncing ball on ascreen. And I said, I wonder if
I can bounce it a different way.And that's led to led me to the
(23:14):
computer programming. It was abasic computer program written.
And I tweaked around with it. Isaw this is interesting. And
then I, you know, I was a premed major, actually, I did all
of the computer pre med classesbiology, chemistry, physics,
organic and calculus, all theway many years ago, Temple
(23:35):
University. And then I alwayshad that bouncing ball interest.
So I said, I gotta, I gotta atleast focus on some of the
programming and focus on somecoding things. So I got into
that. So I ended up getting adegree in pre med, pre med, and
computer science. And that'swhere my lead my career, then it
(23:58):
just took me almost six years toget that. So I because I wasn't
sure which direction I want togo. I said, let me let me take a
little break from medicine.Instead of going to medical
school, I'll just work in thefield. And that's when.com era
was happening. So I thought,yeah, I'm a dinosaur so that I
(24:19):
witnessed the.com era calm. Andthat's when just having just
slight technology skill setwould make made you a super rich
company, even just having an Econference presence. I witnessed
that. So from all of thosetimes, all the way to now. I was
always on the forefront fightingthose battles of cybersecurity.
Jason Varga (24:43):
It's amazing to talk to some of the students
when I was teaching because it'slike, yeah, there was a time
there was no internet. Allright, and people they look at
you like they they can't livewithout internet right now. But
evolved in government, they saidthe.com and the geo cities are
watching a little emojis withlike little slips. and 11 guy,
you know, trying to build thoseweb pages outside dill little
(25:04):
coding myself, though not nottoo excited.
Unknown (25:06):
I was I was on the forefront of the Internet era
that was evolving, like we werecommunicating. But we use
something prior to the internet,it was like bulletin boards, we
use the phone systems, to sharefiles and communicate and do
other things. So I, I ran one ofthe biggest one in the East
Coast. And then internetevolved, and I was there. So
(25:29):
what led me do rcbc was, youknow, I've always had all these
interests, I work in theindustry a lot, still very
active in the industry. And justthroughout my career, I worked
in the field, and then I in theevenings or during class time, I
shared what I did in theindustry. So that's our always
been connected that way. Andthen currently, just having a
(25:53):
privilege to work in the school,and then finish off your
doctorate degree in artificialintelligence, it's great to
have. So having that balance,having a connection in the
industry, having great studentsyou can interact with, and
having the ability to finishyour doctorate will be great.
And that's what led me to here.
Jason Varga (26:13):
And well speaking of interacting with the
students, you know, you playthat major role and the team
getting six in the country atthat cyber bed ICL collegiate
cup. So first of all, how'd thatmake you feel?
Unknown (26:23):
I was amazing. Just having, you know, team come
together, just just some of thechallenges of young folks is
amazing, you know, you just haveto have a certain discipline,
balance, you know, even roidsaying some of the things that
they were using was mostlytroubleshooting, but having an
overall understanding of it, howit works, all of those things
(26:46):
coming together and playing agood roll in that and just, you
know, encouraging the team thatwe can do it, you know, don't
don't worry about who'scompeting, do your best you can,
I even remember where we were,you know, during one of the
attacks in class, there was alive attack happening and, and
all the team was panicking, andwe were, we weren't sure what we
(27:08):
were supposed to do, we evenreached out to them. And I said
just use your natural ability totroubleshoot, use, you know, use
your team effort that we havecollaborate, and, and in the in
the cybersecurity world, but Isee from all from the
perspective of the earlier daysto now being on the forefront.
(27:29):
It's constantly evolvingscience, nobody has a clue. So
just thinking outside the box,just like Roy's mentioning that
we were just trying to figureout what was going on. We didn't
know this, we know nobody knowsit, even somebody like me,
coming from that kind ofbackground. There are so many
scripts, so many languages, it'ssolving a puzzle. So just having
(27:52):
the ability to troubleshoot anda strong team and some general
foundational knowledge of basicprogramming and IP skills will
take you far in this industry.
Jason Varga (28:03):
Sounds good a good coach there. Yeah, good mentor.
As far as my questions of like,you know, what was what was some
of that guidance that youprovided but you just you know,
answered that right there and aswell as what the takeaway
because it looks like from theprevious competitions you're
taking away and applying it tothe next one and then as you
should apply it to the next onebecause you want to be able to
continue to grow and you know,understand and be prepared for
(28:23):
the next attack of the nextcompetition and such which you
know, we're ready for hopefullybecome a top in the country this
time have had that was the planthat top three, but Okay, so in
addition to winning this awardwinning, you know, cybersecurity
team that you're involved withthe college also received some
extremely important funding,cyber cybersecurity grant
funding, which we learned aboutwhen you guys did the
(28:44):
demonstration to the collegelast week, which is an awesome,
you know, demonstration, by theway, is again, we go for the
importance of CybersecurityAwareness month here in October,
but the college we found out isgoing to be offering or
receiving $1 million from theNew Jersey higher education
technology infrastructure fundthat will upgrade and improve
computer networks and Wi Fi andmake them faster and more
secure. They're going to get$400,000 from the National
(29:06):
Science Foundation as part of amulti college concert torium
aiming to strengthenpartnerships among colleges and
employers in emergingtechnological fields. Starting
with cybersecurity effort alsostrives to boost diversity in
these fields. And the New JerseyCybersecurity and Communications
Integration Cell accepted rcbcinto the state and local
cybersecurity grant program tohelp the public institutions
(29:27):
manage and reduce systematiccyber risk. Can you elaborate a
little bit more and like justhow important that funding is
here? Oh, absolutely.
Unknown (29:34):
Everything costs money to improve your infrastructure
and in all of those settings. Sohaving the you know, some of
this funding will help usimprove our curriculums. We're
offering some of the curriculumthat uses cloud technology now,
which we spin our servers in thecloud, we define our security
(29:54):
there. So that gives you like aanother lens into security how
to secure an order integrationssecurity infrastructure, and
having the funding, you know,giving us the ability to improve
our systems improve our ITservices. It in general, as we
look at it, every three to fiveyears is almost 180 shift. So
(30:18):
it's completely outdated and newsets of technology comes in. So
having that funding is verycritical for the organization,
and helping us improve thecurriculum overall,
Jason Varga (30:27):
I think if you keep winning more competitions, more
funding is gonna be coming in.That's for sure. But alright, so
some group questions here, okay.Because again, we're trying to
as we on the program, pod here,we just tried to take a little
of deep dive, but still keep iton a one on one level for maybe
someone that's trying to getinto cybersecurity, what they're
about to get into, or, you know,what that career is about, and
maybe they're a new student, notsure what they want to do, and
(30:48):
maybe you're an art student, andyou're looking to switch, you
know, switch over. So, andagain, this is open to open to
the group here. So anyone cantake the lead, you can bounce
comments off of each other,what, what advice would you give
to an individual looking for apossible career in
cybersecurity?
(31:08):
Why?
Unknown (31:10):
I mean, when I, sorry to cut you off, when when I was
researching into it, I had apassion of a fiery burning
passion of vengeance. I said,Well, if I could stop someone
from doing it to me, why can Istop doing it for other people?
(31:33):
And then that's when I foundlike the the fiery passion in my
heart to save internet lives andbank accounts.
Right? So one thing like, I wantto like not to put it down, but
to guys temper people'sexpectations, don't expect it to
be like the movies right off thebat, you know, yeah. And like
(31:55):
cybersecurity is just one partof it. And when we're here, we
have to learn about a lot of it.And only very brief parts of it,
we have to learn about operatingsystems and networking and
system administration,altogether, our cybersecurity
degree. So I think one thing forpeople I would tell people is to
really like, Get up, getpassionate about computers, get
(32:16):
passionate about just workingwith the technology, not just
about the cybersecurity being ahacker getting the six figure
salary, because if you do that,you're going to end up just
burnout. And I've seen that withsome of my classmates, some of
my friends that they it's notliving up to the hype. So I
think that's one thing forpeople is like, there's a lot of
buzz around cybersecurity rightnow. Yep, there's a lot of buzz
(32:37):
around big, you know, big moneyjobs, you know, go to a go get a
degree, you'll get some crazysalary. But that's just not the
reality of it. So I guess I'dsay, make sure you actually have
a passion for it before justtrying to chase a salary.
Yeah, absolutely. I'll piggybackon what Roy is saying. Be ready
to do hard work. That's that'sone of the, you know, misnomer
(33:00):
about cybersecurity. Justbecause you've learned how to
run a script, or run some, somewebsite hack. And then you're
all of a sudden cybersecurityexpert. Or if you learn some
tool, like snort, or Splunk, orsomething like that, those are
those tools are going to comeand go. The most critical skill
(33:22):
set is still programming, youstill have to understand how
computers think, and learningprogramming, very, very
disciplined world. We haveextensive set of programming
courses in our in ourcurriculum. And then secondly,
understanding networking, that'sa very skilled area that are
(33:44):
very important, and verydifficult, because you have to
learn how the entry points to anenvironments are defined the
routing, the switching, the IPS,the Wi Fi, how to secure each of
them. And each, there are manyvendors, many devices and many
interfaces. So my ultimate thingif somebody is interested in
(34:05):
cybersecurity, I will certainlywelcome them. We need more good
guys or good folks in thecybersecurity versus bad. And we
want them we need that battle.We need to be on this good side
and train folks. But get readyto do the hard work. And then
ultimately, there's plenty ofopportunity. I'm I've been
(34:30):
active in the industry for 30years. It's nice. It's nice to
brag where just from my LinkedInprofile, I'm over. My doctorate
isn't going to be in computerscience. But given my background
in cloud engineering, a lot ofthe security accolades I carry
in lots of certification andCisco and AWS, just having a
(34:54):
consulting firm that helps theindustry and there's a
tremendous need there. That's,that's what I would encourage
anybody joining cybersecurity,we do the hard work, there's
gonna be plenty of opportunityfor you, for the industry and
beyond.
Jason Varga (35:09):
And we're teaching some of those basics and
fundamentals here. Andabsolutely, they
Unknown (35:13):
all of our courses, majority of them have some
certification component also,which industry values it. So
right at the first, first twoyears of your college, you're
getting industry relevant skillset. And that attracts a lot of
employers, for instance, even wehave a cis 138, and a plus
(35:35):
certification that goes with it.Even though we're not teaching
towards certification, you'regetting an actual college
credit, you're learning theactual technology. And if you
choose to, you can go ahead andspecialize in that industry
credential, and have a value inthe industry. So that gives us a
combined version of thiscoverage
Jason Varga (35:56):
is fantastic. So as we're talking here about rcbc,
too, and again, earlier, as Isaid, we're rolling out that
multifactor authentication loginsystem already here for Baron
one. But what are some otherbasic fundamentals that online
users can use to protectthemselves from a cyber attack?
Unknown (36:12):
My My view is, online users, just like Allison was
saying, there's lots of redflags, you know, our call, I
often get these calls, hey,you're being investigated for
tax fraud or red flag rightthere. You know, just if there
is a call, or there's a tax, orthere's a phishing email, those
(36:36):
are the three major things.Nobody's gonna reach out to you
for anything for those threemethods. Just do your due
diligence, make sure don't shareyour information, just be on the
guard. And just just being asavvy online user. When you go
to any website, be sure thatsite is what you're visiting is
(36:59):
reputable. Especially when youget like a free this or free
that or free game. That's you'rejust fooling yourself. You're
gonna crap get trapped into this
Jason Varga (37:09):
another red flag. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So
should users then, you know,have the same passwords? Maybe
this is a question for me. ButI'm usually pretty good from
computers anyway. But shouldusers have same passwords across
different accounts? Or how oftenshould they change them? Change
it? Please. And then Okay, sowhat if you're like me, though,
(37:29):
the best advice becausesometimes you don't want to
write it down, I feel a littlesketchy putting like, my wife
has all her passwords in or noteto like her Mac notes. And I
still feel like Big Brother outthere. Could someone still hack
those notes? But is thereprograms out there or something
to if you have 20 differentaccounts, you have Netflix,
social media, email bankingsystems? Like what do you think
is the best practice for thatthere's
Unknown (37:49):
actually software out there called password managers
like those apps on your phone, Ithink one's called Dashlane.
Basically, you it generatesthese gibberish passwords that
are like 30 characters long. Andthen lets you basically just
auto input them into, you know,whatever login you're using, so
you can store your passwords inthere so that you don't have to
put them on your notes, whichisn't super safe, or you know,
(38:11):
write them down on a post itnote. And it takes care of that
hassle for you. Because you justhave to pretty much hit a button
on your phone and it puts thepassword in. So yeah, if your
phone gets hacked, it couldstill, you know, get out there.
But that's not how most peopleare hacking anymore. It's you
know, social engineering.They're, you know, doing the
phishing emails or the calls,like Professor Baig was just
(38:31):
talking about or how Allison gotscammed. So if you want to, you
know, relieve the hassle ofhaving to remember a bunch of
different passwords, there issoftware out there that you can
install.
Jason Varga (38:41):
It's good to know, I was gonna change the password.
Usually, we're changing ourshere. I just go the next number
up. For me, that's just the wayI do it. Like this way. It's all
in my head. So they can't hackmy brain. Hopefully there but
alright, so we got all the youknow, the technical stuff, you
know, the personal experiencesand everything else. But as
something on the show here, Ilike to kind of wrap it up with
some cheesy dad jokes. You talkabout the side barons, and your
(39:03):
little pawns there. So I havesome puns of my own kind of
maybe ended up on a little bitof a good note and we'll we'll
say So first, I want you to tellme how did the hacker escape the
police how Roy's thinking rightthere. I'm
Unknown (39:17):
trying to think
Jason Varga (39:18):
how did the hacker escape the police? You
ransomware? No, no. Okay. Allright. So we're talking about
the router itself and all thisother stuff. Why did the router
go to the therapist? silence Sowhy did the router go to the
(39:39):
therapists? It was feelingdisconnected. Yeah, all right.
And one last one here. Why didthe hacker bring a ladder to the
job interview?
Unknown (39:52):
So he could escape? No.
Jason Varga (39:56):
Had to get over the firewall. Oh, that's gonna do it
for us, folks. Alright, so it isgoing to wrap it up here for the
episode on the program pod. Hopeyou enjoyed today's show. I do
want to thank guests again todayAllison Warren, Roy Kramer, Bill
big, who all brought us a littlebit more insight in rcbc
(40:16):
cybersecurity program theComputing and Informatics
programs here at rcbc. Butbefore we sign off, anyone want
to plug anything for how to getinvolved with the psi barons,
any? Hi mom?
Unknown (40:27):
Well, Thursdays at 2pm in tech 317 Is the cybersecurity
club meeting. So if you'reinterested in cybersecurity, you
know, come out, check out whatwe're doing
Jason Varga (40:37):
right on right here the Mount Laurel campus by us.
Unknown (40:42):
Stay safe. Change your passwords to random letters.
And mine is a plenty of coursesin our in our curriculum to
introduce all kinds of passionsand focus, especially
cybersecurity. And then ourcybersecurity team. It has six
members, some of thecompetitions are up to 12
(41:04):
members, so it's still open.Come check me out, contact me
and we'll get you into theprogram.
Jason Varga (41:09):
Sounds good. We're getting I'm Dave, Oregon. If you
want to learn more about rcbcprograms like we just talked
about, you can visit rcbc.eduand for other rcbc podcasts we
have to offer, including theBaron as podcast highlighting
powerful women of BurlingtonCounty you can visit
rcbc.edu/podcast Also be sure tosubscribe to the program pod on
any platform where he gets yourpodcasts till next time. Thanks
(41:30):
for listening. And let's likeAllison said, change those
passwords.
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