Duke Cyber Team and Club to host FBI Cyber Squad Agent Jessica Nye, April 11

The student group invites members with an interest in cybersecurity and data privacy

Late night bonding sessions for the student-led Duke Cyber Team and Club start with green or black tea and writing two-page cybersecurity incident responses for an upcoming competition, like this spring’s Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge. Just a few weeks ago, the group comprised two teams, the CyberDevils and Data Devils, each of which battled their way to the semi-finals, with the Data Devils team winning a best speaker award.

Now back in Durham, the Duke Cyber Team and Club has organized an April 11 event with cybersecurity expert Jessica Nye, the current supervisor of the FBI Cyber Squad in Raleigh. Nye has experience in cyber-related matters including computer intrusion investigations, intellectual property (IP) rights violations, theft of trade secrets, economic espionage and other investigations. The event will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Brodhead 216 and will offer a chance to interact with Nye in a small group setting. Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdzzA1O6snzLbJFti5_gMTrkaBAhPyP5GdH4Q-1eo-qZzst_A/viewform.

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Through guest speaker events and other activities such as workshops, social events and competitions, Duke Cyber hopes to engage both undergraduate and graduate student interest in cybersecurity and data privacy.

“Our goal is to create a community for cyber on campus that fosters a greater understanding among Duke students of the purpose, roles, and implications of 21st century technology,” said Shristi Sharma, vice president of Duke Cyber and a sophomore in computer science, neuroscience and psychology.

Finding a community of people who are passionate about technology and supportive of their peers was a big draw for Riya Mohan, president of Duke Cyber and a junior studying ethical and regulatory issues of human genomic editing.

“Even if students don't enter the cybersecurity field, there is still a lot to learn,” Mohan said.

Sharma said that joining the team also provides a chance to learn about cybersecurity as a career through competitions. Each year, students tryout to be a part of one of two teams to participate in the international Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge and the local Southeast Regional Cyber Defense Competition, among others.

The annual competitions give students the chance to tackle challenges in the areas of policy and technical hacking, network with others and develop an understanding of what a career in cybersecurity can look like.

Since joining Duke Cyber, Mohan and Sharma have learned other valuable skills such as public speaking, professional writing, teamwork and networking, while also having a better understanding of how to navigate through the worlds of cybersecurity, government and policy.

“Thanks to the connections I’ve made and the knowledge I’ve gained at Duke Cyber, I feel a lot more engaged in the world of cybersecurity and am even more excited to incorporate it into a future career,” Sharma said.