Location
Mies Campus
Program Overview
This bootcamp provides a more in-depth look at cybersecurity and is targeted at students with prior knowledge of basic cybersecurity concepts. Like the Introduction to Offensive Hacking and Introduction to Defensive Hacking programs, students will practice hands-on offensive and defensive hacking techniques while in a lab environment.
Topics covered will include:
- The concept of “red teams,” “blue teams,” and “purple teams”
- Setup of a virtualization environment for penetration and threat assessment testing
- An overview of attack vectors, including brute force, denial of service, scans, backdoor attacks, and more
- Concepts and methods for mitigation of risk, including firewalls, intrusion detection systems, system hardening, and intrusion prevention systems
- The setup of Kali Linu, along with various tools such as Nmap, Aircrack-ng, Wireshark, Metasploit Framework, Burp suite, John the Ripper, Social Engineering Toolkit, and Maltego among others
- Using scanning tools such as Nmap, Wireshark, Dig, NSlookup, and others to understand the security posture of the network
Sample Schedule
8 a.m.: Breakfast (only for residential students)
9 a.m.–noon: Instruction
Noon–1 p.m.: Lunch
1–5 p.m.: Instruction
5–6 p.m.: Activities and downtime with Illinois Tech summer interns (only for residential students)
6–7 p.m.: Dinner (only for residential students)
7–10 p.m.: Activities and downtime with Illinois Tech summer interns (only for residential students)
10 p.m.: Residential hall check-in for the night (only for residential students)
Sample weekend activities: A beach day at Lake Michigan, visiting Navy Pier, visiting Millennium Park, taking in a Chicago White Sox game, and more! (only for residential students)
Sample weekday activities: Game night, bowling at Illinois Tech’s The Bog, and gaming at the Esports arena (only for residential students)
Eligibility and Program Requirements
Rising ninth–12th graders (ages 14–17); students must be at least 15 years old to stay on campus
To successfully participate, high school students should be familiar with basic computing skills for navigating the command line, have a familiarization with a virtual player, and have knowledge of basic scripting. A few weeks before the program’s start, the Elevate College Prep team will send preparation materials and resources to participating students to complete in advance to familiarize themselves with the topics. We recommend that beginners to cybersecurity participate in the Introduction to Offensive Hacking and Introduction to Defensive Hacking programs.
Program Instructor
Maurice Dawson is an assistant professor of information technology and management within the College of Computing at Illinois Institute of Technology. Additionally, he serves as director of the Center for Cyber Security and Forensics Education and is responsible for working with the faculty who are members of the center. Before joining academia, Dawson was an engineering manager for unmanned air systems and a senior program manager for rotary wing aircraft. He has a doctor of computer science from Colorado Technical University and a doctor of philosophy in cybersecurity from the Intelligent Systems Research Centre at London Metropolitan University.
Questions?
Questions about the application process? Email them to precollege@iit.edu.