November 2019 E-Newsletter
November 25, 2019 
2019 Future Focus Conference
The fifth annual Future Focus Conference: The Hawai‘i Innovation Initiative’s Forum on Sustainability and Resilience was held on Oct. 15 - 16, at the Hawai‘i Convention Center. The conference brought together members of the business community, University of Hawaii, and local and national professionals to focus on efforts to combat sea level rise and other climate change issues through science, engineering, cybersecurity and innovation. Some of the featured speakers included Glenn Hernandez, director of the U.S. Cyber Challenge, Kevin Klein, Homeland Security Advisor to the Governor of Colorado, and RADM Kevin Lunday, Commander, 14th District, U.S. Coast Guard.
Girl Scouts of Hawaii - CyberHawaii's Cyber Security Awareness PSA and Poster Contest
CyberHawaii partnered with the Girl Scouts of Hawaii to raise awareness and promote safe behavior online to protect families and our community against cyber threats through effective public service announcements (PSA) and posters building on the theme “Stop.Think.Connect.”

Entries were judged by a three-person panel, including representatives from the Girl Scouts of Hawaii, members of CyberHawaii and local media.

The winner’s troop received paid entries into the 2019 STEM Fest. In addition, the winner received a scholarship to the 2020 STEM Summer Camp and a $50 gift certificate to the official Girl Scout Shop. Winning submissions will also be featured in CyberHawaii’s 2020 Cyber Calendar.

The winners of CyberHawaii’s Cyber Security Awareness PSA and Poster Contest were recognized during the 2019 Future Focus Conference. Below is a list of winners in two divisions, Daisies-Juniors & Cadettes-Ambassadors.

Division 1 (Daisies-Juniors):
  • 1st Place Poster: Chloe Zerga, Troop 967 (Grade 4)
  • 2nd Place Poster: Jade Dotson, Troop 967 (Grade 5)
  • PSA: Vanellope Teves Troop, 3009 (Grade 2)

Division 2 (Cadettes-Ambassadors):
  • 1st Place Poster: Eleanore Abe, Troop 997 (Grade 7)
  • 2nd Place Poster: Kendall Larson, Troop 193 (Grade 11)
  • PSA: Annabella Kimitch, Troop 327 (Grade 7)
picoCTF Competition
CyberHawaii supports students participating in the picoCapture the Flag (CTF) competition. At the Future Focus Conference, Hawaii students from Sacred Hearts Academy, Kauai High School and Waialua High and Intermediate school received a check of $500 for their participation in the picoCTF competition, a computer security game for middle and high school students designed by security experts at Carnegie Mellon University. Students were faced with a series of challenges where they must reverse engineer, break, hack and decrypt to solve the challenge. Below are the three schools recognized:

  • Highest points – Sacred Hearts Academy
  • Highest no. of participants – Kauai High School
  • Highest % of participants based on school enrollment - Waialua High and Intermediate School
Lunch with Glenn Hernandez, director of the
U.S. Cyber Challenge
On Thursday, Oct. 14, CyberHawaii and AFCEA Hawaii co-hosted a lunch for members to sit and chat with Glenn Hernandez, National Director for the U.S. Cyber Challenge (USCC).

During the fast-paced hour and a half long conversation, Glenn discussed the need to introduce cybersecurity education to students as young as elementary school and engage with them early and often to harness and maintain their curiosity and interest throughout their K-12 education. This will require teachers to be educated and trained to incorporate various aspects of cybersecurity throughout the curriculum. 

Glenn also talked about providing cybersecurity-related opportunities that appeal to our youth such as gamification of cybersecurity through e-sports. He also articulated that community engagement is important to provide internship, mentorship, and networking opportunities to help students prepare for their careers and by helping them strengthen their core skills such as interviewing and resume writing.

One of the main activities hosted by USCC is the Cyber Quests. This is an online competition where participants demonstrate their information security knowledge by analyzing artifacts and performing forensics analysis and answering a series of quiz questions. The top scorers are invited to participate in regional Cyber Camps. CyberHawaii and AFCEA Hawaii will be convening a task force to investigate hosting a regional Cyber Camp in Hawaii. Glenn provided valuable insight into the logistics and organization needed to host a successful camp. More information about Cyber Quests is available at: https://uscc.cyberquests.org/  and more information about U.S. CyberChallenge can be found at: https://www.uscyberchallenge.org/ .
Breakfast with Kevin Klein, Homeland Security Advisor to the Governor of Colorado
On Wednesday, Oct. 16, CyberHawaii hosted a working breakfast with Kevin Klein, Director of the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. With over 30 years of experience in public safety, Director Klein is the designated Homeland Security Advisor to Colorado’s Governor.
 
National Guard Brigadier General Moses Kaoiwi, Jr moderated the breakfast discussion with Director Klein and key government officials from the Governor’s Office, Department of Transportation, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, and CyberHawaii.  
 
In early 2018 the Colorado Department of Transportation was hit by a brute-force attack, a variant of the SamSam ransomware, affecting thousands of workstations, servers, databases and applications.  While the damage and impact had been widespread, Director Klein shared that a major concern was the department’s financial system which processes around $100 million in payments monthly.
 
Having taken care of the financial system first and believing they had contained the outbreak, bringing the Department of Transportation back online with clean and restored systems, officials were shocked to discover new attacker activity just two weeks after the initial discovery. 
 
This prompted Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper to issue a first-ever state emergency declaration for a cybersecurity incident and Colorado became the first in the nation to activate the National Guard for a cyber attack and seek assistance from FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security’s Hunt and Incident Response Team. 
 
Learning from the Colorado experience, Brigadier General Kaoiwi facilitated a discussion focused on lessons learned, Hawaii’s own state of readiness, and best practices for local government officials to consider and implement.
CyberHawaii members:
 Our last meeting of the year is set for December 19 at the Hawaii Leadership Forum . We have moved the time from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm . We will do a wrap up of the year's activities, pass out our 2020 calendars and share some holiday cheer!
Hope you can join us!