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The Girls at This Summer Camp Make Computer Hackers Look Like Hacks

The Girls at This Summer Camp Make Computer Hackers Look Like Hacks

By Raymond M. Lane, The Washington Post | Updated: 13 July 2016 17:56 IST

The girls looked as if they were playing pinball in a creepy basement somewhere.

But don't let looks fool you. Seventh-grader Shaina Adams, 12, who moved the dials, and her new friends at summer camp were on a mission.

Under glowing red lights in the International Spy Museum's pretend command-and-control room, they worked through computerized clues embedded in the museum's "spy mystery" game to catch bad guys. An actor who was wired up to the museum's computer ran them through a fast-paced room-to-room rush to solve the puzzle, and the girls were cool and ready.

There were some shrieks - spy catching can be spooky - but mostly they focused on problem-solving. They used lessons they picked up at the only just-for-girls day camp in America for those who want to understand how the Internet, computers, smartphones and other wireless devices can be kept safe from bullies, hackers, spies and terrorists.

Called GenCyber camps, theirs was one of 119 summer camps sponsored by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Academy of Sciences. Virginia has the most camps, 11, followed by Texas, 10, and Hawaii, 9.

Organizers plan on 200 camps next summer. Some are for kids from kindergarten through 12th grade and others for teachers who want to take computer-security literacy to their classrooms. All are free. The D.C. camp was held at George Washington University's Mount Vernon campus.

"The idea is to open a door," said Vernecia Griffin, a camp instructor who teaches elementary school computer literacy in Howard County. Noting that only 18 percent of computer science degrees were earned by women in 2014, she said, "We seem to be held back by the idea that only boys can do computer stuff."

"It was pretty heavy sometimes," added co-teacher Shade Adeleke, a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) instructor at Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland. "We focused on team building, learning new words and concepts, and then just pumped it up."

Campers created a "honeypot," an unprotected website rigged so they could watch hackers breaking in. "I loved learning about firewalls," said Bethesda, Maryland, sixth-grader Victorine Meuwissen, 11. (A firewall is a device used to keep hackers and viruses away from a computer or network.) "Hackers are so dumb. We could watch and trace the attack back to them. ... So cool."

And campers visited NSA's National Cryptologic Museum near Fort Meade in Maryland to learn how national security data protection works. Experts from Facebook showed them how they protect the privacy of 1.7 billion users around the world.

"I never knew much about computers," said Sofia Wimblerly, 13, of Washington. "I could see a future using this."

That future would probably include a well-paying job. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says average cyber-security pay is $116,000 (roughly Rs. 77 lakhs) per year, nearly three times the national income for full-time work. GenCyber says the United States may fall short by 600,000 professional computer security experts to safeguard the economy, government and military information.

"They all can't be boys," D.C. seventh-grader Ashley Romero said with a laugh. Ashley says she might want to become an architect when she grows up. "Not many girls do computers, but we can do anything in the future."

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