On Friday, students from Windsor High School's Cyber Security and Python Coding classes attended a field trip to the BOCES South Central Regional Information Center (SCRIC).
A dozen members of the SCRIC discussed their current jobs and responsibilities as well as the pathway to these positions. Students learned about cybersecurity attacks and how members of the SCRIC monitor and respond to threats and the needs of over 50 districts and more than 70,000 devices.

Students learned about not only notable incident response events, but also software and strategies to protect themselves and their home networks and devices. Windsor students learned about suspicious files and behavior that could indicate a malicious file or denial of service (DOS or DDOS) attack.

SCRIC incident response team members explained how they use digital forensic tools to protect the data, systems, and users over a large geographic area. Students asked about virus hunting tools and hybrid analysis as it relates to what the SCRIC teams do every day and how they can use this software and these methodologies in their personal lives.

“The SCRIC team presented relevant and interesting scenarios and in what kind of instances they would have to coordinate with local and federal law enforcement agencies,” said WCHS cybersecurity teacher Kevin Smith.

Students learned about "phishing and "spear phishing" campaigns that are used to ensure school district employees are thoroughly trained to not engage with potentially malicious users or software which could jeopardize devices, networks, or personal information.

They also toured the Network Operations Center (NOC) and secure server room before learning about internships and other opportunities to begin their careers in Cyber Security and Computer Science.