Hackers, beware! Girl Scouts to offer cybersecurity badges

Carolyn McAtee Cerbin | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Girl Scouts are now giving out badges for cyber security Girl Scouts as young as 5 are hitting the computers.

Need a cybersecurity expert? Never fear, qualified Girl Scouts are here.

Or at least they will be. Girl Scouts of the USA and Palo Alto Networks has announced a collaboration to introduce a series of 18 cybersecurity badges for girls K-12. The badges, which will help Scouts explore opportunities in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) while building leadership skills, will be available to earn beginning in September 2018.

Badges, of course, are the insignia Girl Scouts — now 1.8 million strong — display on their tunics, vests and sashes.

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Sylvia Acevedo, chief executive officer of the Scouts, said in a statement her organization aims to help girls gain "skills to navigate the complexities and inherent challenges of the cyber realm."

Tasks girls will do to earn the badges are just now being developed, said Suzanne Harper, senior director of the Scouts' national STEM strategy, but will include games and hands-on activities for younger girls and field trips and meetings with mentors for older girls.

For instance, Daisies and Brownies might learn where information goes and how a computer works, while Juniors and Cadets might get into how viruses work and how cyberhacks happen. Seniors might study social engineering, finding out how psychological manipulation of people works in phishing attempts.

Have you heard the news? GSUSA is working with @PaloAltoNtwks to develop #cybersecurity badges for girls in K-12! https://t.co/d4c58nWREP pic.twitter.com/H6UkHNAyEd — Girl Scouts (@girlscouts) June 16, 2017

"These badges are going to address the needs that girls have and the world has. Girls need to know how to be safe online, how to protect their personal and financial information and how to avoid hoaxes or scams and more," Harper said. "It's clear from the daily news that the world — companies, government, hospitals — has a need for strong cybersecurity and there's actually a great need for cybersecurity professionals."

Before the rollout next year, 112 councils across the U.S. will recruit troops to do proposed activities and give feedback. The badges won't replace any existing ones, but will augment the ones decided upon in a 2011 revamp of the Scouting curriculum.

Palo Alto Networks, which provides next-generation cybersecurity for businesses, will help the Scouts investigate career options that might lead them to filling jobs in a field expected to need millions more workers. According to the latest Cybersecurity Jobs Report by Cybersecurity Ventures, the worldwide deficit of qualified cybersecurity professionals will reach 3.5 million by 2021.

"We’re not just going to be selling cookies." @girlscouts will soon be able to earn cybersecurity badges: https://t.co/FwQsyl0X8i pic.twitter.com/dZeKiC3zun — Good Morning America (@GMA) June 20, 2017

Females make up just 11% of the cybersecurity workforce, according to a study by non-profit Center for Cyber Safety and Education (ISC)². And 69% of women say they haven't pursued information technology careers because they didn't know what opportunities are available to them, research by the Computing Technology Industry Association revealed.

Teaching girls about those cybersecurity opportunities will be an extension of the Scouts' "fun with purpose" STEM strategy, Harper said.

This year girls K-5 will be able to earn new awards through "Journeys" in engineering, computer science and outdoor STEM, where they can learn to be citizen scientists.

Overall, the Girl Scout mission is to develop girls of courage, confidence and character, Harper said. The new security focus will "be an opportunity for girls who might realize they have a talent or an interest in cybersecurity to use those talents to make the world a better place."

Follow Carolyn Cerbin on Twitter: @carolyncerbin