DSU cybHER receives donation from accessdata
June 30, 2021
Justin Tolman (right), director of North American Training with AccessData, an Exterro company, answers a question for a young camper at the 2021 DSU GenCyber Camp, while camp director Kanthi Narukonda looks on. This camp session focuses on the importance of making wise decisions online.
In the technology-connected world, understanding digital forensics is critical to making wise decisions.
To help young people understand how important this is, AccessData, an Exterro company, has raised and donated $2,900 to CybHER. This funding will help CybHER’s efforts with outreach including the GenCybHER Girls in Cybersecurity Camp, held annually at Dakota State University. The CybHER mission is to empower, motivate, and educate girls in cybersecurity.
“Without supportive partners such as AccessData and Exterro, we would not be able to impact the number of students we have since CybHER was created eight years ago. Companies like these are critical to our mission,” said Dr. Ashley Podhradsky, CybHER co-founder and vice president for Research & Academic Development at DSU. The outreach program has impacted over 28,000 students since its inception in 2013.
The company raised the funds at their tradeshow booth during the Techno Security Conference early in June. At the booth, they featured information about the mother/daughter duo of Arica Kulm and Alexis Kulm. Alexis is a cyber operations major at DSU; her mother, Arica, is DSU’s first doctoral graduate in Cyber Defense and is now the interim director for the DigForCE Lab at Dakota State’s Madison Cyber Labs.
“We are very excited and proud to be able to continue our support of your organization,” said Keely Nelson, events marketing manager with AccessData, an Exterro company. She noted that a blog highlighting the participation with the camp was also created.
The software company also supports the annual camp through a live presentation by one of their staff. Justin Tolman, director of North American Training, showed the 6th through 9th-grade campers how digital footprints are recoverable, and what the field of digital forensics is like.