(gentle music) - Hello and welcome to Priarie Pulse.

Coming up a little bit later in the show, we'll see another artifact spotlight.

But first joining me now is John Gieser with North Dakota IT.

He is the Manager of Support and Technical Services, and works with K-12 Technology Strategy.

Well, John that's a lot of words to say that you work in IT, I guess.

But John, as we get started, tell the folks a little bit about yourself and maybe your background where you're from.

- Sure.

Thanks, John.

Again, my name is John Gieser.

And I'm a North Dakota boy, born and bred, born in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Grew up in the Minot area, went to a absolutely great school system in Burlington, North Dakota.

Graduating from Des Lacs Burlington High School.

Loved the state so much.

I went to college here at UND.

My background is primarily in things like physics and mathematics.

But, you know, as I started looking to get into the workforce, I got interested- At that age, as you can tell from the new coloring in my hair that I've been in the game for a while.

But the Internet was really starting to take off for educational purposes.

And I started working with the group that at the time was called Send It.

And they provided IT services, things like email and web hosting to schools in North Dakota.

And it was just a really wonderful organic place to get in on the ground floor.

And I've been there ever since.

So probably about my 21st, 22nd year that we're going into now.

Now we've kind of evolved and merged into the states information technology group and the IT.

That's a collection of all the IT professionals from across state agencies in North Dakota.

But the mission is still the same, to make sure that we're providing a quality, IT services to the schools in North Dakota.

Helping to give them all an opportunity to succeed and deliver a quality education to the students in North Dakota K-12.

- Hmm.

Well, you're here today to talk about a big event.

That's gonna be happening, I believe in February called Cyber Madness.

Okay.

What is Cyber Madness?

- Well, you alluded before, anything related to IT.

We're gonna pack as many words in there as possible.

So the official name for it is the North Dakota High School State Cybersecurity Tournament.

But that's not enough to really fit on a t-shirt.

So we shortened it down into the unofficial name is Cyber Madness.

And just to get the details out first, Oregon have it in February, this coming February.

From February 10th through 12th, and it will be at the Bevin State room and Lovely Bismark State College campus.

And in a nutshell, it's gonna be an opportunity for high school students from across North Dakota.

And we're using high school, a little fluidly there.

You know, in so many small schools.

They might say, well, we have a seventh grader or an eighth grader that really loves computers and security.

Are we gonna let them be involved?

Absolutely.

So the gist of it is, we're gonna allow schools to put together teams of up to five students.

And the same schools can send multiple teams as well.

But all of these teams will be present onsite at the Bevin Estate room.

And the competition will be somewhat like jeopardy.

You know, we're all familiar with the big board and people taking turns, answering the questions, but we're turning that on its head a little bit.

It's going to be all questions related to network security fundamentals.

We have a course already that as soon as you get registered for this event, we send you access to that course.

So you can get it studied up, but instead of it just being kind of a boring rectangular board or grid, it's gonna be a map of the world.

And every single country on that map is gonna contain a question.

And everybody from every team is able to attack the boards, so to speak, in real time.

And there'll be able to answer questions from various categories related to cybersecurity.

So you can imagine out of that team of five students, you might pair them up and say you two work together and look for questions of this nature.

You two work together and maybe research answers, or you can just say everybody for themselves.

You could even have just a school that sends one just really brilliant kid.

And maybe she's just gonna run the board on everybody.

But everybody is gonna be attacking that board and answering questions in real time related to that network security fundamentals class that we'll send people to.

So there's no cost to register.

We just want to make sure that every school is giving their students an opportunity to succeed and learn in this area.

- When I heard something you said, it's always up to five students - Per team.

- It can be one or five per team or three.

- Exactly.

- Okay.

- Exactly.

- But so, is this the inaugural event?

Is this first year you're gonna have it?

- Yeah.

- And how did it come about?

- Oh, well, so like many great ideas.

It all started with a half crazy idea.

Like, wouldn't it be cool if.

And to give a little bit of background, you know our governor, Doug Burgum.

We recognize that there is a cybersecurity gap that is present and will be growing.

So we convened a group called the North Dakota PK20 W project.

See there we go with all the letters and names again.

But in a nutshell, we recognize that with all of these unfilled cybersecurity positions, and we can talk a bit more about those later.

We're gonna have to have a way to grow those people here in North Dakota.

So we've got a group that gets together.

It has representatives from state government from higher education, from K-12, from workforce partners.

I mean more than, I think the last I saw the number was more than 40 public and private sector partners.

And we get together to talk about workforce opportunities and education opportunities, starting at the pre-kindergarten level all the way up to PhD.

And during one of these meetings, Sean Riley, our State's Chief Information Officer said, wouldn't it be cool if, we could somehow have an activity or an engagement that would get students excited about participating in cybersecurity?

And he had the idea, it would be great if it was, someday to become just as popular as high school basketball, which, you know, if you're from North Dakota, that's kind of a tall order to fill.

And I think our governor is a huge fan of high school basketball as well.

But, you know, if you don't set the bar high, you'll never know how high you can jump.

So he kind of came up with the idea of having a cybersecurity tournament that we could have students participate in.

And this is the very first year we've put those things into place.

- Well, PK 20W sounds like something I'm gonna put in my car.

But I just don't- (John chuckles) Can you talk about the growing and urgent need for cyber security professionals?

- You know, that really is at the core of the problem.

Like, as we sit here today, there's already at least a half a million unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the United States.

A lot of those are here in North Dakota.

And it affects every single field.

It can be in, certainly, in defense, and healthcare, and finance, banking, education, energy.

All of those fields are effected.

There's this desire, this need to fill those jobs.

And it's only gonna grow in the next couple of years.

As predicted, it'll go to three and a half to 4 million, unfilled jobs worldwide related to cybersecurity.

So North Dakota, it's an agrarian state.

You know, we grow things here.

And it's not just crops, it's not just farm products.

We're gonna grow our cybersecurity students because with the distributed workforce, there's people that are working here in North Dakota that might be called upon to fill jobs across the United States and vice versa, we might need to hire people from across the United States or the world to fill our needs.

So businesses aren't just in competition with somebody two blocks down or two cities or counties down, we're competing with the world.

And the solution to that is to grow the students that are gonna become the professionals will need to hire.

And we need to start at that immediately.

- When are you talked about this as a tournament.

- Yeah.

- You're calling it a tournament.

Is the hope that this will be an ongoing annual event and will grow?

- Absolutely.

All of the partners that we've started to build this with.

You know, the public and private sector.

And certainly, NDIT has a desire to see this continue to grow.

We know that this year is gonna be kind of an uphill battle to make sure we get the engagement out there, make the schools aware of it.

But once this gets going, yes, our partners are already saying, we're ready for year two.

We can't wait to get started on that.

So when this thing wraps up on February 12th, and we're all taking a deep sigh of relief, we roll up our sleeves, we get right back to work starting on the next year, right away.

- Well, now you talked about impact and, but what involvement do you have with government healthcare, finance, education, et cetera, with the tournament?

Or can you tell me more about that?

- Well, when we talked about the activities that will be going on a little later, we have representatives from various industries that will be at the tournament.

So the students will have an opportunity to meet with professionals and hear from cybersecurity experts on what it means to be in the industry and what needs to be fulfilled.

But on a larger scale, within the state of North Dakota, we are very blessed that North Dakota is actually in the lead.

When it comes to network capacity, there's no state anywhere close to us.

That also invites bad actors to become interested in attacking our networks.

And the state of North Dakota also has a single centralized response unit for cybersecurity within NDIT.

And we worked very closely with our partners in healthcare and finance, and defense, to share information and to make sure we're all presenting a common front for defense.

And we ourselves are part of that half a million unfilled jobs that we have a need to be able to hire the best and brightest in the world.

And that's where this tournament comes in, that we want to make sure that we're growing them here in North Dakota.

So I should point out again, just to make sure it's really clear.

This tournament is going to be based on content that is in a cybersecurity fundamentals course.

So it's there for everybody and we're gonna make sure that whatever your role, whatever your background, there will be a place for you to be able to learn this content and be successful.

- Well, I don't know much about the program or the tournament, but I've heard a little bit.

But I mean, is this like these young folks, are they gonna be basically trying to hack into something?

Are they gonna be trying to break cyber security?

Are they gonna be putting walls up to protect?

What are the?

- Well, primarily on the defense side.

So those first two rounds, that's more gonna be kind of like as describing for that game of vacation, or I like to use the term incentivized engagement where we're gonna give you access to that course, and you will learn all the material from.

You know, the various chapters and sections laboratories.

So in the first two rounds, we quiz it.

Just to kind of see where you sit.

And then as we find out who our top teams are, the finals are what we call a live fire cyber range.

And that's where they will be inside of a virtual environment.

So we're not gonna send them out to hack your bank account, John.

But they will be responding to a simulated attacks.

And how do you identify these things happening within the equipment and the interfaces that you have.

And how do you go ahead and throw up the barriers or mitigate those types of attacks.

Again, using the equipment that you will have learned how to use during the cyber security fundamentals course.

- Well, it sounds very interesting, but do other states or other organizations do things like this?

Are you patterning it?

'Cause I guess you talked about this Palo Alto fundamentals course.

So are other states already doing something like this?

- This will be the first that I am aware of.

This is the first of its kind, especially involving high school students.

A lot of the stuff, you might get a company that has a background in cybersecurity and they might run through a what's called like a cyber range activity.

You might have colleges that are doing this.

There are some indications where there's colleges that have run a cybersecurity tournament like this, but this is the first of its kind for high school students.

- Okay.

So are there prizes, trophies, whatever involved or ?

- Yes, sir.

First, we're gonna have jackets and t-shirts, and the normal swag that everybody is used to getting.

We're gonna make sure that the kids are feeling loved and respected.

But there has to be some skin in the game, right.

That's that incentivized engagement.

So we'll have plaques and trophies, and a few other things that I probably won't mention quite yet.

I don't want to make promises.

we can't cash the check for.

But yeah, the students will be rewarded for their success.

- Yeah.

Well, now you mentioned.

So are college students gonna be involved at all?

- You know, there will be students that we will be there from say BSC or some of the other campuses.

We will have representatives from the other universities there, almost kind of like a college fair or career fair for the different workforce partners.

So there will be some students there to maybe advocate for the programs that they're involved in at the other campuses.

- But not in competition?

- Not in competition.

This is North Dakota K-12 against North Dakota K-12.

- Okay.

So do you feel like this is geared for techie kids or not?

- Yeah, thanks for bringing that up.

Because it really is something that.

And I'll admit, being an IT, we sometimes cultivate this environment that there's people who are born to it.

But that is absolutely not true.

And especially in the area of cyber security, it's a pretty well founded concept that only about one third of the jobs in cybersecurity are actually what you'd call highly technical.

You know, 'cause of course, we do need people there to write the software and mitigate those different kinds of network attacks.

But there are so many other opportunities.

For example, in the state of North Dakota, we're looking at philosophy majors.

Because if you're in philosophy, you're studying logic and you're studying ethics and morality, and how it relates to the human condition.

And frankly, that's how you develop security policies.

You know, what is it that people need to do to have guidance on their actions and how can those policies make logical sense?

That's something that a philosophy major is just really geared towards.

Also when you are developing software, you want something that has an intuitive user interface.

You're gonna want something that is gonna make sense to the person using it.

And how often have we ever used programs or software that just didn't make sense.

So then you start to work against the intent of the program and maybe you're that salmon that swimming upstream.

But a person with a good art and graphics background, is gonna be able to help develop those sorts of systems.

So that helps people use the software in the safest and intended manner.

So there are many, many opportunities for success in cybersecurity, and only about a third of those are what you'd kind of call for the techie kids.

It's a wide open area and I just can't overstress that urgent need right now to fill those jobs, to help protect our data, help it be stored safely, help it be transmitted and used safely.

But you know, the course that we would run people through the network security fundamentals, that's just what allows all of those people though, the philosophers, the artists, and the techie kids be talking a common language.

So we're not expecting anybody to come in there and write programs for us.

It's really just about knowing and understanding the background and basics of fundamental cybersecurity.

- Real quick.

Tell me again, the open access, what is the open access to the network security fundamentals course?

- Sure.

So we do have a form and I think we'll be showing a website on screen later.

That forum is what a teacher or representative of the school or educational entity would use to say, all right, I'm bringing a team.

Once we get that information, we contact them and give them access to an online course called Network Security Fundamentals.

And it was developed by Palo Alto.

And it is a finite amount of material, probably about 30 hours of content.

So there's plenty of time between now and February, even just spending an hour or so, a day working on it.

You'd get through everything.

But that is the body of information that this tournament is going to be based on.

And we will give that access to every single school at registers.

So they're all gonna be on a playing field.

If you bring any kid who maybe, she's an absolutely astounding programmer.

That's great.

But we're not testing on that.

We're testing other the content of that network security fundamentals class.

- Yep.

Our hackers getting more sophisticated.

And why is Russia often mentioned in attacks?

- Oh boy.

So how many hours do you have?

- About three more minutes so.

(John chuckles) - Yes.

They're always getting more and more secure.

It used to be that you could always tell what was a phishing email or some sort of attempt to hack you by how bad the grammar was.

But they're always getting more and more proficient in mimicking and attacking our systems.

And we've also moved far away from, you go back 20, 30 years ago.

And it was basically bored college kids that are just trying to maybe playfully exploit systems.

But nowadays, it's nation states.

Every everything we do is fundamentally tied back to technology and information, and the transfer of data from one place to another.

And not everyone plays nicely together.

Russia does frequently get accused of having Spain state sponsored hacking and cyber warfare.

And they're not the only country that's involved like that, but that's exactly the sort of thing that we need to defend against.

And it's not just something in the military, it's in the energy sector, it's in healthcare.

All of that information needs to be kept safe.

- So you're saying, can cyber attacks can be dangerous?

And what kind of damage do you fear could happen?

- Almost every single industry.

They have their nerve center.

And that's the thing that they need to protect most.

It might be our healthcare information, backgrounds, knowing what our bank accounts, our finances, our transactions.

You know, people assume that they can conduct to their lives privately, but that of course gets compromised.

Whenever computer systems are compromised.

In the energy sector, of course, the entire power grid and the ability to transport power from one place to another.

Be able to have a smart grid of some that we would hope to be able to evolve to someday.

Those are all critical infrastructure that that must be protected.

We don't want someone deciding that they're gonna take out turbines or power generators that would leave North Dakota without electricity or heat in the middle of winter.

It was bad enough in Texas.

Can imagine what that would be like in North Dakota?

Those are the kinds of things we protect against.

Every single day, there are millions of attacks that are constantly ongoing, and we have systems in place that protect us against that.

But we need the cybersecurity professionals to manifestations.

- You know, how can students get tours of IT facilities and other activities?

- Oh, great point.

That's actually something that we're hoping to do at the event coming up in February.

It's not just we sitting kids down and grilling them or quizzing them.

We're gonna have all sorts of activities.

There'll be cyber professionals.

And our state chief information officer providing keynote speeches, we'll have for opportunities for them to meet with the colleges and workforce representatives.

But we're also going to be taking them on tours.

We're looking into taking them on tour.

So if you ever wonder, where's the internet actually made?

You can come along in the tour and we'd take you in.

And this is how the information gets from your school computer or your home computer, and finds its way out to the Internet.

We'll show you all the big server rooms and network rooms, and the tens of thousands of wires connecting all of them.

You can see how it works.

- Well, we are just about out of time.

So Johnny, if people want more information and I guess we're talking about the tournament.

And teachers and kids, working they go, who can they contact?

- Sure.

You know, we would love to respond to any and all questions or interest.

I believe there might be a website that's gonna be coming up on the board.

It's always terrible to have to spell it websites online or over the air.

But if they just wanted to reach out and email us, they could always email us at ND cyber madness.

So N-D C-Y-B-E-R madness @K12.nd.us.

And see?

It's always all those letters, John.

But ND cyber madness at K12 ND US.

And we'll get back to them right away.

And we'll direct them back to that website that we should have on the screen.

- All right.

Thanks, John.

Thanks for joining us today.

Thank you very much for the time.

- Stay tuned for more.

(gentle music) In this artifact spotlight, the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County shows us the essentials that came with Norwegians on their long journeys to Minnesota in the 1800s.

- Hi, I'm Lisa Vedaa, the Collections Manager at the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead, Minnesota.

And this is my artifact spotlight.

Here at the museum, we have a small collection of Norwegian folk art artifacts that were brought over by immigrants from Norway in the 1870s and 1880s.

A lot of the people who came to Clay County from Norway were joining relatives in Clay County, or when they were some of the first ones to come.

They were taking advantage of the homesteading offers that were available for land in Minnesota.

These artifacts are mostly household goods that were all handmade and decorated in a variety of manners from painting to different kinds of carving and also wood-burning.

Many people didn't have access to factory made goods.

So that's why a lot of the items in their homes were handmade from wood and other materials that were easily accessible to them.

And when they came to America, they also didn't have access to factory made luggage.

So they made wooden immigrant trunks and decorated them very elaborately in many cases.

And we have several immigrant trunks in our collection.

This trunk was made for Anne Johnstatter, Twetten in 1879, for her trip to Clay County.

And it has some very beautiful painting, decorating it.

That is called rosemaling, which is specific to Norway.

And different regions of Norway have different styles of rosemaling.

It also has some very beautiful wrought iron work for the lock and the handles on the sides, and some of the fastenings on the corners.

It also uses some wood pegs for its construction and also some metal rivets and nails as well.

People often packed a lot of these household goods into their immigrant trunks to bring with them to America so that they would have what they needed to start their new homes.

And there's different types of objects, such as salt cellars.

Salt was a very prized seasoning.

It wasn't as common in the 19th century.

And prior to that, this was a wedding gift in 1851 to the couple that brought it over from Norway.

Boxes like these were called Tina.

And they were meant to hold different types of food or other household objects.

They were made by bending birch wood and fastening the ends together with birch root.

And this box was decorated with burned wood designs.

And this Tina was decorated with painted design that is common to the Telemark region.

This is a butter tub that just held butter.

It was made in 1807, but repainted in 1914.

And another common feature for decorating is putting the year that the object was created on the object.

This milk bowl is one of our oldest objects in the collection.

It was made in 1780s, carved in the bottom of the bowl with the initials of the maker.

And there's little design at the bottom.

Folk art pieces like these have survived because they were durable and well-built, and people save them out of nostalgia for their heritage in Norway.

And Minnesota, North Dakota had some of the largest numbers of Norwegian immigrants.

And so there's still deep connection felt by people of Norwegian background to their heritage.

As the county historical society, we do focus our collecting on Clay County, Minnesota, but we are not just a Scandinavian museum.

We do want to collect objects for our collection, from people from all backgrounds who have had history in Clay County.

(gentle music) - Well, that's all we have on Prairie Pulse this week.

And as always, thanks for watching.

(gentle music) - [Barbara] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, and by the members of Prairie Public.