North Dakota Chief Information Officer Shawn Riley today encouraged North Dakota students, parents and educators to explore the exciting educational and career opportunities available during Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week.

Gov. Doug Burgum today announced the state’s participation in CyberStart America, an innovative, online cybersecurity competition sponsored by the National Cyber Scholarship Foundation and SANS Institute. The competition encourages high school students to explore their aptitude for cybersecurity and computer science with a chance to win prizes and scholarships. Registration is open and play begins today. The competition runs through Feb. 28, 2021.

 Code.org, the Computer Science Teachers Association, and the Expanding Computing Education Pathways Alliance have released the 2020 State of Computer Science Education: Illuminating Disparities. The report shows that despite increased diversity in computer science classrooms across the country over the last decade, disparities still exist as fewer than half of high schools in the U.S. teach computer science.

North Dakota Information Technology Department (NDIT) and North Dakota Department of Health (NDDoH) have received reports of 'spoofing' attacks in which cybercriminals misrepresent themselves as a healthcare professional to extract personal information. Criminals may also be using phone number masking tools to conceal their phone numbers or to emulate the NDDoH public health hotline (866-207-2880).