[ technology ]
Solving the Cyber
Security Shortage
JAMIE NULL
Positions in the cyber security industry are on track to become
the jobs of the future. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
the growth rate for jobs in information security is projected
at 37 percent through 2022. This demand for the industry
comes from an increase in cyber attacks and the need for
information security in an ever-increasing technological world.
To meet this need in the Mountain State, one higher education
institution and one private academy are helping students make
their way into a defining era of technology.
In March 2019, Morgantown Learning Academy’s (MLA)
tech team won first place in the middle school division at the
CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. A
month later, Marshall University established Women in Cyber
(WInC) to help females in technology find support and vis-
ibility in their field. The two organizations are building up
existing cyber security infrastructure in the state to help train
students for cyber security roles with the hope of creating new
jobs in West Virginia.
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
Morgantown Learning Academy’s Team πthons
Earlier this year, a rookie middle school team from MLA
competed against roughly 3,500 teams and took first place at
the CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition.
The team is the first from West Virginia to qualify and com-
pete in the competition, which was created by the Air Force
Association to help encourage students to pursue careers in
cyber security or STEM fields.
The West Virginia team’s name, πthons, is a double play on
the mathematical constant pi and the Python computer pro-
gramming language. At the competition, the team was given
virtual images of a variety of operating systems and tasked with
finding and remedying cyber security vulnerabilities in those
systems while maintaining critical functions of the operating
systems during each six-hour competition round.
The team consists of five students—Braedyn Hill, Thalia
Krissoff, Andy Loos, Hayden Monday and Khensa Rahman—
and is coached by Sharda Mohammed, Donovan Monday, Brian