Tag Archive for: class
NPCC to offer internet safety class | Lifestyles
North Platte Community College will offer an internet safety and security class beginning next month.
Delivered via Zoom, the class will provide information about modern technology and its impact and offer security tips for a digital age. Topics will include hacking, firewalls, phishing, encryption and biometrics.
“Technology is overwhelmingly confusing, and so incredibly hard to keep up with,” said Shane Gerhartz, instructor. “In this class, we take a giant step back and look at what technology is, how it’s being used and how we can not only function in a fully technological world, but also be safe and secure at the same time.”
Gerhartz has been immersed in technology since he was a child — whether that was through building computers or hosting neighborhood LAN parties.
He has been designing, building, installing and troubleshooting networks for nearly 14 years and, for three of those years, has also served as a technology integrationist for a local school. When not working, Gerhartz can be found dabbling in photography, videography, live streaming, video production, freelance information technology services, public speaking and IT training.
“I’m a guru of many things technology and spend every day learning more,” Gerhartz said. “My goal moving forward is to transfer this wealth of knowledge to those around me, and more so, to change the paradigm of thinking toward technology and life. I’m a proponent of creating a better world and helping others find physical and mental joy and happiness in life. I feel that understanding technology is the first step to changing our mindsets and understanding the influence of the world and how technology is involved.”
Biden enlists ‘world class’ cyber security team – Security
President Joe Biden is hiring a group of national security veterans with deep cyber expertise, drawing praise from former defense officials and investigators as the US government works to recover from one of the biggest hacks of its agencies attributed to Russian spies.
“It is great to see the priority that the new administration is giving to cyber,” said Suzanne Spaulding, director of the Defending Democratic Institutions project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Cyber security was demoted as a policy field under the Trump administration.
It discontinued the Cybersecurity Coordinator position at the White House, shrunk the State Department’s cyber diplomacy wing, and fired federal cyber security leader Chris Krebs in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s November 3 election defeat.
Disclosed in December, the hack struck eight federal agencies and numerous companies, including software provider SolarWinds.
US intelligence agencies publicly attributed it to Russian state actors. Moscow has denied involvement in the hack.
Under a recent law, Biden must open a cyber-focused office reporting to a new national cyber director, who will coordinate the federal government’s vast cyber capabilities, said Mark Montgomery, a former congressional staffer who helped design the role.
The leading candidate for cyber director is Jen Easterly, a former high ranking National Security Agency official, according to four people familiar with the selection process.
Now head of resilience at Morgan Stanley, Easterly held several senior intelligence posts in the Obama administration and helped create US Cyber Command, the country’s top cyber warfare unit.
Easterly did not respond to requests for comment.
The Biden administration “has appointed world-class cybersecurity experts to leadership positions,” Microsoft corporate vice president Tom Burt said in a statement.
Some observers worry, however, that the collective group’s experience is almost entirely in the public sector, said one former official and an industry analyst who requested anonymity.
The distinction is important because the vast majority of US internet infrastructure is owned and operated by…