Cyber-IT Academy

Explore careers in Cybersecurity and Information Technology.

Empower students to inquire, analyze, and resolve real-life situations.

Emphasize rigorous and relevant instruction in academic and technical areas.

Bellview Middle School students received an invaluable hands-on learning experience Thursday when University of West Florida Center for Cybersecurity ambassadors presented a series of interactive demonstrations. 

Device signal geolocation and password hashing were among the topics taught to a few dozen students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades at Bellview Cybersecurity Academy. The students had all indicated to their teachers that they'd like to explore cybersecurity as a career path. 

For students interested in online gaming, one demo in particular hit home, showing them how simple it is for experienced hackers to guess their passwords and hack into their Xbox Live or Playstation Network accounts. 

"For some of them, this is really relevant in that passwords can be guessed fairly easily, especially when they are not stored securely," said Carson Wilber, a Center for Cybersecurity ambassador. "So, what I showed them was, in a blink of an eye, in a tenth of a second, I can calculate 35,000 passwords and try and guess them. And sometimes with just guessing, I can guess one in just three or four seconds."

Using Google Maps, another UWF student put into perspective just how much wireless technology we carry around with us every day, and how abundant these devices are in proximity to most buildings full of people.

"I think I'm tracking just over 25,000 unique devices on that Google Map right there," said ambassador Michael Mitchell, who picked up signals from wireless devices like cellphones, iPads, FitBits and more with a WiFi wardriving kit. He then recorded all of the data, wrote a custom code and exported it into a Google Map, using markers as representations of all the wireless devices he picked up across Pensacola.

"What I'm having the kids do is walk up and play with the map, play with the interface and let them explore where all those devices are at," Mitchell said. "Let them say, 'OK, if I am this far away from a building, I'm not picking up wireless devices anymore.'"

Bellview computer fundamentals teacher Theresa Simmons, who helped facilitate and oversee Thursday's presentation, said she thinks UWF students did an excellent job of heightening students' password security awareness.

"A lot of times, kids take that for granted, so I think, career field aside, that's an eye-opening experience for them," Simmons said. "And for them to have a hands-on experience, actually doing these things, I think this will inspire them more to go into cybersecurity." 

At the end of the 75-minute session, students shared some of their takeaways from the presentation. 

"Be careful what you put on your phone because people can easily find it," said seventh-grader Jose Hernandez.