Fall of 2018

In the fall of 2018 I had reached out to the UNO Nullify group. I started with contacting the faculty advisor Dr. Bill Mahoney. Based on Dr. Mahoney response is the student don’t meet regularly as a student group. They focus mostly on the Capture the Flag Event, but they have a new student president. He forward my information on to the student president.

There was a delay in responses for a few months. Then later in the semester I received a response from the student president.  Since the time was close to Thanksgiving break and end the semester. I recommended I would follow up in early 2019.

In January, I sent a email about a spring event.

“I am following up about sponsoring a meeting in February for Nullify. A dates that would work for me is the February 22^nd.

I will talk about securing mobile applications. I can sponsor pizza and bring swag/prizes.”

Planning

In early January I meet with Security eam mates to talk about upcoming events with the Nullify group. One of the upcoming meetings was the Nullify Student meeting on Friday February 22nd at 6:30 p.m. on UNO.

I shared that I would be talking securing mobile applications. I would be sharing what I learned from SANS training on mobile applications. Jerry Pope volunteered to talk about Protecting Mobile Applications.  What he could show is the incidents that we get from our 3^rd party vendor. It would probably  be 10 – 15 minutes. He also said showing what the vendor finds and why we don’t want the imposter trademarked apps.

Meeting

Here is my list of things I need to remember to bring.

• QDOBA ( 3-Cheese Queso Pan  and Bag of Chips)              
• Chicken from Hy-Vee
• M&M’s and Popcorn (Vics)
• Pop cans so I don’t need cups.
• Plates, Forks, Napkins
• Box of Swag

I was told via email that there would be around 50 students attending the meeting. I was skeptical because of Friday night and it was snowing. I was proven wrong. The was packed with more then 50 students.

We set up food first for the students.

As the students ate I showed the Technology Works Here (TWH) video. One of the attendees at the meeting was a student who came to TWH and was hired as a intern for the summer of 2019.

I then passed around my Office 365 Form. I told them I would follow up with a email. I also said I would be sharing information on how they could get a free ticket to a upcoming conference that Farm Credit was Sponsoring, Connectaha. I also talked about being at the upcoming Spring Career Fair at Baxtor Arena.

Protecting Mobile Applications

Jerry Pope started the first part of the meeting talking about Protecting our brand.

During his presentation when a student answered his question. Jerry gave out Starbucks gift cards.

Securing Mobile Applications

I spoke about securing mobile applications. I used the my training material from SANS Mobile Security to show different security vulnerabilities on the iOS platform.

Follow up email

The next day I exported the data from the Office 365 form and sent a follow up email to each student. This is a great way to give a contact point. Plus I had instructions on how to get the ConnectaHa pass.

Hello [Student],

I’m Anthony Carlson, a Lead Application Developer with Farm Credit Services of America. This past Friday, February 22^nd, I spoke about mobile application security vulnerabilities in iOS at the NULLify student meeting. It was awesome to spend my Friday night with 50 plus students. I hope to build relationships with the group, so I can be invited back in the Fall of 2019.

I mentioned a few items of interest before I started presenting:

• Farm Credit Services of America is sponsoring free entry to https://connectaha.com/ for selected UNO Students. If you can commit to attending the conference on March 8^th. I can put your name in a drawing for a free ticket. Reply to this email with a phone number so I can get hold of you if you are selected.

• This Wednesday February 27^th from 11:00 A.M. – 3:00 P.M. I will be at the ACDC Spring 2019 Career & Internship Fair at Baxtor Arena. This is a great opportunity to network with employers and learn about career options. Make sure to stop by my booth!

Connect with me on social networks:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyacarlson

Twitter: https://twitter.com/anthonyacarlson

If there is anything I can help you to reach a career goal in IT, please let me know.

The Cybersecurity (Nullify) student group hosts a Capture the Flag (CTF) competition for regional High Schools. I decided to sponsor this event as a great chance to network and get the Farm Credit Services of America name out to this group. I received information about being a sponsor back in November of 2018.

Planning

Working with Information Technology leaders Russ Wagner and Rex Earl. We decided to sponsor the Bronze for $500.00.

Leading up to the event I coordinated with the Security Team for volunteers to help at the event. I also secured a table by working with the

Christie Smith, the Academic Program Coordinator at PKI. School of Interdisciplinary Informatics. She told me that they have never had a sponsor at the event before and was thrilled that I would show up.

Day of Event

The event was at the Scott Conference Center on UNO Campus. I arrived about 8:45 a.m. I met Christie who helped get my table set up in the far corner of the room.

The event kicked off at 9:00 a.m. I was happy to hear Farm Credit Services of America was given a mention as a sponsor of the event. After looking over the T-Shirt that everyone at the event received our Bio Star Logo was on the back of the shirt.

The room was set up that each high school had 4 to 6 members that worked as a team trying to earn points for finding vulnerabilities in a website.

Through out the event I meet the following Professors

• Dr. Bill Mahoney (Faculty advisor to the Nullify Student Group)

• Dr. Matthew L. Hale (He teaches mobile application development. Mostly in Android. We exchanged emails for a potential class room visit in the future).

• Dr. Robin A. Gandhi (Teaches mostly about Security Assurance and Attack)

A big thanks to teammates for working split shifts to help out.

On Thursday January 31, 2019 I visited the University of Nebraska-Omaha CBA student organization DELTA SIGMA PI. I was extending a invitation by the faculty advisor Dr. Erin Miles to speak to the group about professional development.

I arrived about 7:00 p.m. at Mammel Hall. From 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. the group was finishing up with New Pledges.

 

I waited in the commons area for the pledge ceremony to get over. The president came out to get me about 7:20 p.m.

      

The meeting was in Mammel Hall 113 which is the Auditorium. When I walked in I estimate there were about 30 students.

I started the meeting off showing the students the Technology Works Here video. When the video was over I invited the students to “Innovation Works Here” on February 15th. Every student was given a physical invite. I took information with a Office 365 From. 16 students gave me information.

Besides my role of Lead Application Developer I also serve the role of being a College Ambassador for FCsamerica to strengthen relationships with the University of Nebraska – Omaha (UNO).

I spent the next 15 to 20 minutes talking about Career Development and answering questions.

I talked about various forms of Leadership

• · Self-Awareness
• · Self-Management
• · Relationship-Management

The meeting ended with group picture.

When I got home I used word mail merge to send a personalized message to each student.

The University of Nebraska-Omaha College of Business Capstone Cup finals took place on Friday, November 130th on the first floor of Mammel Hall, located at 6708 Pine Street, Omaha, NE 68182.

This was a second time attending the finals of this event, but this time I was going to be a judge. Since Farm Credit Services is a sponsor of the event there was a reserved table for the networking event portion of the event lasting for about an hour before the finals started. It is a great opportunity to speak with our students and attendees.

Finals

The finals were held in the auditorium. I was glad with the sponsorship money ($500.00) I had a judges seat in the first row.

Our logo with company name was recognized during the finals.

The format of the afternoon was going to be the following:

1:00 PM Welcome by Associate Dean Harland

1:10 PM Presentation 1

1:30 PM Presentation 2

1:50 PM Presentation 3

2:10 PM Presentation 4

2:35 PM Judges Deliberate

2:45 PM Awards Presented

The presentations were treating the judges like a Board of Directors. The groups were pitching how they can transform the YETI company. I took a lot of notes, but I personally did not have many questions. The team that won had recommended a YETI fridge targeting hunters and fishermen: from the field to the fridge. This was the same group that had reached out to me about blockchain.

The sponsorship was for the FALL 2018 and Spring 2019 years. So I look forward to do this again next semester.