UAH hosts Girl Scouts Cyber Challenge on Oct. 19

UAH will host the National Girl Scouts USA, Raytheon Cybersecurity Challenge on Oct. 19. About 300 middle and high school girls will attend the event.

Michael Mercier | UAH

The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) will host the National Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) Cybersecurity Challenge on Saturday, Oct. 19. Approximately 300 girls will attend the event.

The day will begin at 8:30 a.m. on the UAH campus with events in the Charger Theater, Shelby Center for Science and Technology, M. Louis Salmon Library and lunch on the Robert Altenkirch Greenway. The Cyber Challenge is the GSUSA’s first-ever national Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) challenge event. The 2019 theme is Girl Scouts Today. Cyber Leaders Tomorrow.

UAH, GSUSA, Raytheon and the Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama are excited to host the Cyber Challenge program event for girls grades six to 12; age levels Cadette, Senior, and Ambassador.

"We are thrilled to host this event. These girls will be our cyber leaders of the future," said Sharon Johnson, Deputy Director, UAH Center for Cybersecurity Research and Education.

Raytheon developed the curriculum and the UAH Center for Cybersecurity will host and teach the sessions. UAH received the designation of National Center of Academic Excellence/Cyber Defense for 2014-2021.

The challenges for the girls will be based on a fictional scenario that takes place in the year 2050: humans have colonized the moon and a ransomware attack has targeted the colony’s water supply. The girls must work together as part of an incident response team to find out who hacked the system. By solving the hypothetical ransomware attack, approximately 2,500 girls across 10 U.S. pilot cities will cultivate key cybersecurity skills with support from volunteers and mentors. The scenarios will allow girls to gain a better understanding of linguistics, phishing, decryption, steganography, facility logistics, Bacon’s ciphers.

Lunch, snacks, and drinks will be provided. Girls will receive a limited-edition Cyber Challenge patch and awards.

Registration for this event is closed.