Inspiring tomorrow's cyber defenders

As part of Boeing's support for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, company leaders will offer insights into Boeing's commitment to the cyber challenge on Boeing.com's As We See It page each Monday. This week, Rick Stephens, senior vice president of Human Resources and Administration, discusses how Boeing is working with promising youth to encourage them to pursue cybersecurity careers. The above photo shows one of the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competitions that Boeing sponsored last spring. The two-day competitions pitted university students against network security professionals, including Boeing cyber engineers, who volunteered their time to play the part of cyber attacker.

Our success relies on access to technically educated and skilled workers who can deliver the game-changing products and services our customers expect. This is particularly important as information technology and cybersecurity continue to transform business at an astounding pace.

National Cybersecurity Awareness Month reminds us that in the face of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, developing new and diverse talent trained in defending information networks is more important than ever. To this end, Boeing partners with universities and others to develop new technologies and to identify and nurture tomorrow's cyber defenders.

Complementing Boeing's financial support of education are powerful grass-roots, skills based volunteering programs including support for the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. Boeing volunteer support builds on a strong commitment by our employees to shape the future by sharing their skills and talents to engage young minds interested in the cyber field at an early age.

Earlier this year during two-day simulations, the best and brightest student cyber defenders competed against network security professionals volunteering their time to play the part of cyber criminals. Students were challenged to defeat simulated network intrusions while maintaining business continuity.

Learning how to defend a network and defeat an attack is the hook-but the real power lies in forging lasting relationships with mentors and hands-on experiences that help students imagine themselves as cybersecurity professionals. The industry is looking for workers who have trained beyond the classroom and experiential learning builds important life skills including teaming, sportsmanship and leadership. It also inspires imagination, breathes life into designs and fosters critical thinking.

As the importance of cybersecurity continues to increase, highly skilled cyber defenders are key to creating, developing and delivering products and services that protect global prosperity and national security. Through hands-on learning experiences, we are preparing students to enter the workforce with problem-solving and collaborative skills needed for success. It's also one way Boeing and its employees are providing students with the inspiration and knowledge needed to become tomorrow's technical workers-and candidates for Boeing's future workforce.

- Rick Stephens, senior vice president of Human Resources and Administration, Boeing Co.