Willcox Middle School holds all-girls Cyber Summit

According to Forbes, more than 300 million people were victims of cyber attacks in 2023. That's why the Arizona Department of Homeland Security (ADHS) is educating local students on how to stay safe online.

ADHS is hosting it's first all-girl cyber security summit in Cochise County at Willcox Middle School, giving rural students the opportunity to learn how to be cyber secure.

Sixty-two students from Cochise, Pima and Santa Cruz counties attended Friday's summit. The day was designed to educate girls on being safe online, and on career opportunities in the tech field.

Rebecca Bhasme, a science, coding and robotics teacher at Willcox Middle School worked with the organizers to have a summit in southern Arizona for schools that can't get to Phoenix for the larger cyber security event coming this fall.

Bhasme says it's important to bring outside resources to rural communities.

"Hackers want everyone's information," Bhasme says. "And I want my students to be safe online, I want them to pass it on to their families and be the person who starts this awareness in the community and society."

Bhasme says she hopes this starts a movement of more rural schools participating and learning about cyber security, not only for themselves but for their students. In Willcox, Alexis Ramanjulu, KGUN Nine."

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