CornCon Kids To “Hack The Pentagon”

CornCon Kids’ Hacker Camp (The Children of The CornCon) will feature dozens of kid-friendly activities in 2017. These activities range from lock picking and dumpster diving, to learning about electronics, coding and blacksmithing. The intention of the kids’ camp is to open the eyes of kids to the benefits and vulnerabilities of technology. This is done every fall in the Quad Cities, 100 kids at a time.

For the first time, kids at “CornCon 3: The Courne Ultimatum” will be able to “Hack The Pentagon”. This program started as a bug bounty, developed by the DoD to uncover vulnerabilities in their computer systems and web applications. The program uncovered 138 vulnerabilities and now the U.S. Army Cyber Command is sending First Lieutenant Daniel Lim on the road to show kids and adults how bug bounty programs work, and the methods used by penetration testers to uncover and responsibly report vulnerabilities. Responsible disclosure is key, as finding and exposing vulnerabilities to the public can lead to malicious attacks, if it is not preceded by software patches to address the vulnerability first.

Kids understand HOW to use technology, but just as the locks on your house may be compromised, hardware and software may also be vulnerable or used in unintended ways with negative consequences. CornCon strives to teach kids the ethical use of technology and how to use their superpower (knowledge of technology) in ethical ways (white hat hacking), and to make technology stronger as well as to uncover vulnerabilities before the black hat hackers do. The field of cybersecurity is rapidly growing in attempt to keep up with the growth of new technologies and associated threats. It is vital that kids see that a career in cybersecurity is exciting and meaningful. This conference is a way to show kids how a career in a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) can change the world for the better.

CornCon (Quad Cities Cybersecurity Conference) was founded as a regional cybersecurity conference in 2015, along with The Children of The CornCon, a kids’ hacker camp. The upcoming conference and kids’ camp will be held September 9, 2017 in Davenport, Iowa. There will also be a professional development workshop held on September 8, 2017, taught by seasoned CISOs. CornCon was founded by John Johnson and members of the Quad Cities Cybersecurity Alliance, and is sponsored by IEEE and St. Ambrose University. Our website is: www.corncon.net.

For further information, or to register for the adult or kids program at CornCon, please visit www.corncon.net.