HUNTSVILLE, Ala — Living in the digital age means hackers and cyberterrorists are constantly trying to steal information from all of us - including our employers. So, next month the annual National Cyber Summit will be held at the VBC in Huntsville. Mayor Tommy Battle, Summit leadership and Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering met to give us a preview of what cyber dangers we all face. This year's National Cyber Summit will focus on how the city will address this challenge through a new program targeting k-12 educators and students.
Co-President and ASCTE Program Ambassador Kiera Richardson believes it is important to protect people's personal and private information. "When you go to the doctor, you're filling out all that information and they're putting that information that you fill out into a computer. That computer needs to be protected. So having people that can secure that information and make sure it stays secure is where I'm really focused on right now."
Cyber Huntsville President Jamie Miller adds that cyber threats are changing constantly. "Almost every minute there are new threats that are coming out online attacking different threat vectors." That is exactly why the city of Huntsville is happy to host the summit. "We have a real privilege this year to actually have a specialized track. It's called our workforce development and K-12 track. We're focused on bringing cyber teachers. we're talking about cyber curricula. The whole idea is really close the gap in cybersecurity. We also have the privilege of the state of Alabama creating a specialized grant that will pay for all Alabama public school teachers to attend the National Cyber Summit for free."
Miller believes things like identity theft and fraud are only going to become more pervasive over time as these new technologies for machine learning and artificial intelligence come online. So what are some of the best practices to combat this? "Best practices are, you know, they don't use, you know, I love my wife or something as a password. I mean do generally a passphrase."