On July 1, the U.S. Senate passed the Securing Energy Infrastructure Act to defend the U.S. energy grid by partnering with industry to utilize engineering concepts to remove vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to access the grid through holes in digital software system.

https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-passes-king-bill-protecting-energy-grid-from-cyber-attacks

The ball is rolling to get the state's first cyber technology magnet school ready for classes by next August.

Local technology companies handed over some big donations Thursday to the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering. At the National Cyber Summit they rallied in support of the school and what it means to have it in Huntsville, but there are still a lot of major pieces up in the air, like where the school will be and who will run it.

A location is chosen for the ASCTE, according to Senator Arthur Orr, but he's not saying where it is yet. He tells WZDX News a temporary site has a small hurdle before they can announce it, but they envision being there for the first three years while construction goes on at the permanent school site. 

Moves are being made to fund the school by companies hoping to hire its graduates.

"We know the challenge of recruiting staff and it's just gonna get more difficult as not just DoD and NASA, but the energy industry, banking, medical, all have to protect their data," said Joe Green, president of Davidson Technologies. Davidson Technologies donated $250,000 and Torch Technologies donated $100,000 to the school Thursday. 

The more than 300-student magnet school will make Huntsville the center for all things cyber security.

"There's no other school or replicate anywhere like it in the country so we're the pioneers but we've got to do it right and we've got to do it with the highest quality that we can have," said State Senator Arthur Orr, (R) District 3.

Cyber Huntsville reports there are more than 2,000 unfilled cyber and engineering jobs in Alabama. They're jobs UAH students say would be a lot easier to succeed in as a graduate from a cyber magnet school.

"If I would have learned something like this in, let's say ninth grade, my level of skill would be an order of magnitude different," said Franco Camarillo, president of the UAH Cybersecurity Club.

The school is expected to attract more people to the area. Local students are glad it's creating opportunities for the people already here.

"It makes the most sense getting the people that are growing up here and then kind of developing their talent to kind of feed Huntsville and make Huntsville grow into a leading place for the cybersecurity industry," Camarillo said.

Read more from Rocket City Now

Huntsville's Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering got a big boost at the National Cyber Summit. Torch Technologies and Davidson Technologies Inc. presented checks to the school being built right now. Davidson donated $250,000.

Torch donated $100,000. Decatur senator Arthur Orr is on the school's board of trustees. He said he isn't sure yet how the money will be used, but the donations are a reflection of the school's support.

"If we get the school that we envision that is truly world-class, I can envision families moving to north Alabama to have their children matriculate at this world class institution. There's nothing else like it anywhere in the county," said senator, Arthur Orr.

Senator Orr said they're looking to hire a principal and more donations will be announced in the coming weeks. The cyber tech school is supposed to open next year.

Read more from WAAY 31

In the same week millions of Americans were warned twice about new risks to their online data, nearly 2,000 cyber security experts met in Alabama to talk about computer security.

There were a lot of messages and a lot of data shared, but two thoughts stood out. “To some degree, everybody’s at risk” and “nobody cares.”

Read more at AL.com

The White House, in a $2.6 billion increase from last year is requesting over $9.6 billion for the Department of Defense cyber activities in fiscal 2020.

The request will fund support DoD’s three primary missions:

• Network Information Systems
• Military Commander Objectives
• Defending the Nation

This will provide necessary funds to support the U.S. military cyber forces (including the recently elevated US Cyber Command.)

Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander of Cyber Command, provided to the Senate Armed Services Committee written testimony in February that said this fiscal year the command was executing a budget totaling roughly $610 million.

Read the full story Fifth Domain

HASBAT and Cyber Huntsville are partnering to conduct a great trainig session on March 7th at the Jackson Center!  Please see the details on our Events page!

The Alabama School of Cyber Technology & Engineering coming to Huntsville and looking for a President. The school will be a residential school similar to the School of  Fine Arts in Birmingham.  The school is scheduled to open in August 2020. Senator Arthur Orr, explains the Charter Magnet "what place better place to locate than in Huntsville."

For the full story visit, WZDX Fox News Rocket City Now  

 

Huntsville High School’s Open Division team, along with Lee/New Century Technology High Schools’ All Service team, and the Challenger Middle School’s team are State Champions in the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition for the 2018-2019 season.  Huntsville City Schools earned a clean sweep in the Middle School and Open divisions with all three place earners being district schools.  In the All Service division, the top two teams are district schools.

CyberPatriot the National Youth Cyber Education Program created by the Air Force Association (AFA) to inspire K-12 students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation's future. ​

At the center of CyberPatriot is the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. The competition puts teams of high school and middle school students in the position of newly hired IT professionals tasked with managing the network of a small company. In the rounds of competition, teams are given a set of virtual images that represent operating systems and are tasked with finding cybersecurity vulnerabilities within the images and hardening the system while maintaining critical services.  Top teams from Huntsville City Schools have earned a spot in the National Semi-Final on February 3^rd, 2019 which gives them a chance to qualify for the National Finals held in the Baltimore area in April.

CyberPatriot Alabama State Standings:

Open Division

First Place:  Huntsville - Huntsville City, Coach Jim Morse

Second Place:  Grissom - Huntsville City, Coach Richard Kitchings

Third Place:  Lee/New Century - Huntsville City, Coach Thomas Archer

All Service Division

First Place:  Lee/New Century - Huntsville City, Coach Diane Richie

Second Place:  Grissom - Huntsville City, Coach Johnnie Richardson

Third Place:  Hazel Green - Hazel Green, Coach Cameron Case

Middle School Division

First Place:  Challenger - Huntsville City, Coach Teri Mitchell

Second Place:  Challenger - Huntsville City, Coach Teri Mitchell

Third Place:  Hampton Cove - Huntsville City, Coach Vivian Johnson

Official standings were released January 24, 2019 at http://uscyberpatriot.org/competition/current-competition/scores

Look for information on an Awards Ceremony to honor these students coming soon!

Lockheed Martin’s new STEM Scholarship Program is now open for applications through March 12, 2019.

• The program is open to high school and college undergraduate students planning to pursue a major in engineering or computer science.
• This program has significant scale with up to 1,000 students each receiving $10,000 annually. When the program is running at full capacity, we will be awarding $10 million in scholarships annually.
• Mentoring opportunities will be a key component of the program, and recipients will be eligible for a Lockheed Martin internship following their freshman year of college.
• The application is administered by Scholarship America, an organization with more than 60 years of experience designing and managing scholarship programs.
• To see detailed eligibility requirements and the application, visit https://lockheedmartin.com/scholarship. Questions about eligibility and the selection process can be answered by Scholarship America.

 

Huntsville, AL - A new state magnet school is being established in Huntsville. The Alabama School of Cyber & Engineering Foundation will be handling donations and local contributions for the project. 

AeroJet Rocketdyne donated $5,400 to the ASCE Foundation to assist with the development of vision and concepts in support of Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering.   John Myers, Vice President, Finance Operations and Carla Broussard, Director, Strategy, Marketing, and Community Ventures at Aerojet Rocketdyne presented the check to ASCE Foundation President Alicia Ryan and Board Members at a reception on November 12, 2018.

In 2020, it will start 10 & 11 grade with 50 students in each class. In the second year, 9th grade will be added. And it will continue to expand until it goes from 7-12th grade. 

"We need the support from our community if we're going pull to this together and get it open in 2020. We need industry to stand up and take a stand to help us create a technology-driven high school," Ryan stressed. "It's exciting to me to see children who didn't even know they had these abilities and now they have the access to the right people to help teach it to them." 

 

For more information on how you can donate infor@cyberhuntsville.org