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High School Students Test Hacking Skills in Wi-Fighter Cyber Challenge

by Janelle Hill Jan 10, 2020
2020-WiFighter

High school students took on the role of hackers when DeSales University hosted the Pennsylvania National Guard’s Wi-Fighter Cyber Challenge. 

Students from the Monroe Career and Technical Institute and Jim Thorpe Area High School were divided into four teams. Their mission—to hack into wireless networks set up by the National Guard and to ultimately launch a foam missile stationed in the back of the room. 

“This was an opportunity for us to recruit for our cyber security track as well as work with the National Guard to showcase the opportunities that they have,” says Dr. Pranshu Gupta, associate professor of computer science. 

Adds Joseph Walsh, director of the Master of Arts in Criminal Justice (MCJ) program: “If these students are interested in cyber security, they could potentially become our future students. Now they know about DeSales and they know we have a cyber security track.”

Gupta and Walsh are hoping to have the National Guard return to DeSales with its Wi-Fighter challenge for Cyber Security and Digital Forensics Day on April 24.