The 3rd Annual Palmetto Cyber Security Summer Camp was staged last week at Lowcounty Tech Academy.

Special thanks to Bill Littleton for serving as camp director, and to the lead sponsors of the camp, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Charleston (SPAWAR) and Trident Technical College!

Over 80 students participated in various tracks, including the  “Junior Cyber Warrior” track, new for this year for middle school aged students.

The Junior Cyber Warrior campers enjoyed sessions on Computer Deconstruction, Scratch Programming, Command & Control Systems, Building PowerPoint Slides, Internet Security, Trebuchet, LEGO Robotics, Cyber Espionage, Snap Circuits, and a “Clash of Clans” style cyber security challenge.

In the Cyber Espionage challenge, students were assigned to recover key intelligence from a USB drive containing stolen information after searching a potential spy (manakin). Once they found the suspicious item on the spy, they examined the data for valuable secrets using popular cryptography and forensics tools.

Check out these students’ hand-built trebuchets – they loved practicing and competing:

Other campers enjoyed sessions like Computer Deconstruction, Installing & Securing Linux, Networking, Installing & Securing Windows, Vulnerabilities & Threats, HTML Programming, Java Script Design, Raspberry Pi, and a Cyber Challenge led by SPAWAR volunteers.

Students interested in Engineering and Robotics were treated to a VEX Robotics program packed with hands-on project-based learning activities.

Students also got to experiment with a small drone as they tried to navigate through various obstacles. Check out this video!

The purpose of the camp was to bring together subject matter experts, local businesses, community organizations and most importantly students, our future cyber warriors, to learn about cybersecurity.  The organizer’s  ultimate goal was to provide each participant with specialized focused sessions and ample opportunities to experience hands-on activities in different aspects of cybersecurity.

This year’s camp theme was “Defend Your Domain” to embraces the notion of protecting cyber “domains”.  Students learned the importance of being ever vigilant in protecting themselves against cyber-criminals.

Here are some pictures from the end of camp awards ceremony – view even more pictures from the camp here!

CCSD Career and Technology Education would like to give a huge thanks to Jim ‘N Nicks catering, SPAWAR, Trident Technical College and all the other community partners that invested their time, talent, and support to make this year’s camp successful.

Thank you to Joseph Bullinger with SPAWAR for sharing the pictures for this story.