(HARLINGEN, Texas) – One of the most important things that students in the Cybersecurity program at Texas State Technical College learn is how to outwit cyberattackers and their ransomware — that sneaky software that takes over a computer’s files, then demands payment before access is restored.
“Our students understand the importance of creating a system backup and testing the backup to ensure it works correctly,” Alex Alcoser, a TSTC Cybersecurity instructor in Harlingen, said. “A backup is our only means of recovery. If it fails, then everything fails. The objective is not to comply with a hacker’s demands to pay a ransom.”
Ricardo De Leon Jr. and Matthew Rodriguez are two of the program’s students.
Rodriguez is studying for a Cybersecurity certificate of completion. He said he learned that intrusion detection is one way a company can deter a ransomware attack.
“It’s a security tool that monitors the network traffic and finds suspicious activity,” he said. “After it identifies a threat, it will alert an administrator to take action.”
De Leon, a recent graduate of the program, re-enrolled to pursue a Digital Forensics Specialist advanced technical certificate.
He suggested that businesses should conduct employee training on ransomware attacks.
“The training should include double-checking items such as emails, websites and other areas,” De Leon said.
Recently TSTC Cybersecurity instructor Yahya Labanieh used an analogy that he knew his students could relate to.
“If you became a victim of a cyberattack and lost 100% of your information on social media, then you lost everything,” Labanieh said. “Put that into perspective if you worked at a bank. It’s your job to maintain the privacy of customer information. What are your next steps going to be to resolve a ransomware attack that happened on the job?”
According to onetonline.org, information security engineers in Texas earn a median salary of $100,720 a year. The website projected that there would be a 20% increase in the number of such jobs in the state from 2020 to 2030.
To learn more about TSTC’s Cybersecurity program, go to tstc.edu/cybersecurity.
