McAuliffe calls Potomac High School ‘cyber warriors’ future of data protection

Virginia’s governor said the state’s IT infrastructure  is continually under attack. Hackers try to access illegally healthcare information, personal financial data, and they’re aiming next to steal tax and social security information.

A group of “cyber warriors” from Potomac Senior High School in Woodbridge will lead the defense against the latest online threats. The students were recognized by Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Wednesday, who called them the future first line of defense when comes to protecting critical data.

The students are enrolled in a special IT security program at Potomac Senior High School. It is the only one of its kind offered in Prince William County, where they’re learning defensive hacking skills on a curriculum based on the lastest government security standards from the National Institutes of Technology.

“As the technology continues to grow, we’re learning important security measures, like local host security, to detecting and preventing problems,” said Jaida Jenkins, who attends the cyber security class two to three times per week.

Many of the students in the class starting working on computers when they were in middle school or younger. They came to hear the governor speak Thursday at the first-annual Commonwealth Conference on Cyber Education, held inside the new workforce development center at Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge Campus.

Here, McAuliffe said he plans to put more money into the next year’s budget for cyber security combat online threats. A new scholarship program — the first of its kind in the nation — will pay the tuition for students enrolled in an Associates-level cyber security degree in full in exchange in exchange for state employment.

“We’ll pay for your two years if you give us two years of service,” said McAuliffe.

McAuliffe went on to tout business growth in the state and said he plans to add more money for IT faculty at the state’s community colleges. For starting IT security salaries, McAuliffe said they start at $88,000 per year.

“Doesn’t that sound nice?” he asked of the Potomac High School students.

“It’s a lot better than life guarding,” said Victor Western to Potomac Local. “I did that I didn’t get paid as much.”

There are 75 students enrolled in the cyber security, four-year curriculum at Potomac High. Students learn everything from assembling a computer and installing an operating system to learning about mitigating cyber threats, and the legal and ethical issues of cyber security.

The majority of the costs associated for students taking the course are picked up by the Prince William County SPARK Foundation, a partnership between the school division and local business.

None of the students had to have their arm twisted by a parent to take the cyber security course. 

“I’ve been working with computes since I was 6 years old, so this class makes sense for me,” said Reymart Taba, a student in the program.