Date: Monday, June 24th - Friday, June 28th 2024, from 9:00 am - 1:00 pm online via Zoom .

Targeted Participants: Advanced middle & high school students from San Antonio and surrounding school districts. Some Linux/UNIX and coding experience is preferred.

Program Highlights: This one-week online/virtual camp will introduce students to the world of white-hat hacking and penetration testing. Starting with a comprehensive introduction of foundational cybersecurity principles, this camp will introduce participants to the various toolkits and approaches used to compromise and secure vulnerable computer and network systems, applications, and protocols. Students will be mentored towards pursuing advanced technical or research-focused careers in the exciting field of cybersecurity. They will also be exposed to the ground-breaking cybersecurity research currently taking place in the Computer Science department at UTSA. This course will be taught by Prof. Murtuza Jadliwala and Prof. Anindya Maiti in a highly interactive setting within a small group of students.


Click here for Camp Schedule and Slides!

In this camp, participants will:

• Learn basic principles of cryptography, user authentication and access control, data privacy and anonymity, and software and protocol vulnerabilities.
• Get familiar with Kali Linux and the various tools and toolkits it provides for vulnerability exploitation and penetration testing.
• Participate in interactive hacking sessions and exercises in a controlled setting to get hands-on experience in using and deploying some of the popular Kali toolkits and applications.
• Attend career mentorship sessions and exciting research/technical talks by prominent cybersecurity researchers and professionals.

To Apply:

Thank you for your interest. The application window is now closed.

Application Deadline and Evaluation:

Applications will be accepted until May 31st 2024 and admittance/acceptance decisions will be emailed soon after that. No late applications will be accepted beyond the deadline date. Admittance to the camp will be competitive and will be based on the student's statement of purpose, background and academic preparation, and CV. Students are expected to submit well-prepared statements and CV. Applications that do not contain these documents will not be reviewed and declined admission to the camp! Women, minority and students from low-income families are highly encouraged to apply.

Registration Fee:

$200 for each student accepted to the program (paid on-line). Students/parents facing economic difficulties/hardships are encouraged to apply, and can request waiver of registration fee, with statements/notes from their school counselors.

Questions/Help?

Please email Ms. Debra Leal at debra.leal@utsa.edu with any questions/concerns or with help related to registration/payment.