Turnley originally dreamed of becoming a surgeon but wasn’t a fan of biology. When she took a computer science class that was required for her major, it changed her whole career trajectory.

“I did really well in that course and found it to be so interesting how you can write up code to do almost anything you could think of,” she says. “I was even helping other people understand programming and helping them with their assignments.”

Turnley decided to make the leap to a subject that came so easily to her, changing her major to computer science.

“When you’re in college each decision seems like a life-changing decision since it determines your career,” she says. “I realized that some of the best decisions that you make are going to be scary, and if it’s not scary then it is not worthwhile. I made the shift and I truly enjoyed my experience.”

UCF was one of two Florida schools Turnley considered to pursue a graduate degree. Ultimately, she chose to become a Knight after determining that UCF’s programs were more unique and hands-on, and with many more resources to help her succeed with it being such a large school. With her sister in Orlando and friends in the area who had graduated from UCF, she had a strong support system in place as well.

She had her sights set on UCF’s , one of the six master’s degree programs offered by the UCF Department of Computer Science. With few forensics programs offered across the U.S., Turnley made a judicious decision to take on a second master’s degree program simultaneously.

“Thinking strategically, I decided that it would be beneficial to also have a degree in cyber security and privacy as this would provide me with more opportunities if I was unable to find a role in digital forensics initially,” she says. “It did help that the cybersecurity program was built off of the digital forensics program, therefore, some of the classes I have taken apply for both programs.”

Her inspiration for pursuing digital forensics is an unconventional one, but for Criminal Minds fans, it makes complete sense. Turnley has been enamored of the show since her first year in college, and a fan of the character Penelope Garcia in particular. As a technical analyst for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, the quirky hacker turned criminal profiler helped track down miscreants with digital evidence, uncovering incriminating data in seconds.

“I am a true crime junkie and understanding the psychology behind the criminals was fascinating. What really drew me in, though, was Garcia, the tech genius behind finding all the information that the team needed,” she says. “I wanted to be just like her: fighting crime without having to be on the front lines.”

As a digital forensics intern for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, Turnley is well on her way to doing just that.

“As you can imagine from my original career choice, I have always wanted to help people. By doing digital forensics in the criminal space, I would be able to assist people on a larger scale by helping keep communities and the world safe,” she says.

Her ultimate goal is work for a law enforcement or government agency, giving her the opportunity to provide digital forensics services on a grand scale. She says UCF has helped put her on this path in her academic career with several resources.

“UCF has helped me so far through organizations like the National Society of Black Engineers, Career Services, and my mentors, Dr. (DeLaine) Priest and Dr. (Ali) Gordon,” Turnley says. “I will continue to cultivate my UCF network even after graduation and the services available to me as an alumnus to further achieve my goals.”

Whitehead, who is studying for his master’s degree in digital forensics, recently placed second out of 688 competitors in the , the first qualifying step to join the team. The top 60 finishers will square off next in the upcoming virtual U.S. Cyber Combine Invitational, which will determine the national team to advance to the international event.

“The process is very similar to selecting a dream team to compete in the Olympics,” says Tom Nedorost ’02MS, faculty advisor for the student cybersecurity club, .

“I’ve been interested in programming and computers since I first got access to them as a kid,” says Whitehead of Lake Mary, Florida. “This eventually led me into cyber security specifically, which to me was far more exciting than programming. It is a fascinating field that brings together concepts as different as abstract algebra, which is vital in modern cryptography, and management processes that ensure that programmers write secure code.”

The International Cyber Security Challenge will be hosted by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity.

The International Cyber Security Challenge will be hosted by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity as a part of a promotion to raise awareness about cybersecurity. The U.S. team selection is being overseen by the company Katzcy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In this first virtual round from his home, Whitehead says he had to solve a variety of problems, such as finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in websites, breaking encryption systems to read hidden messages, reverse engineering software, and analyzing a forensic copy of a mobile phone. “The big challenge was completing these challenges as fast as possible, since it was a race to see who would complete them all first and lock in the top places,” he says.

In the next round of tests, Nedorost says the U.S. Cyber Games head coach will put the competitors through a series of challenges to further assess their knowledge and skills before selecting 20 for the first U.S. Cyber Team.

Whitehead’s sister, Caitlin, also studying for her master’s in digital forensics, finished in the top 20 of the recent competition. Nedorost says she likely would be invited to compete in the next round, too.

Whitehead says much of his competition success is because of the mentoring and assistance of many of the students and alumni at the Hack@UCF club on campus. He encourages anyone interested in competing or learning more about cyber security to join the club.

Nedorost says that since the U.S. Cyber Games is a new competition this year, he had very little information to share with students about how to prepare.

“I simply forwarded an email advertisement promoting the U.S. Cyber Games to Hack@UCF club members and encouraged students to register if they wanted to compete,” he says.

Whitehead says “to do well in competitions, you have to compete in competitions, and that often includes losing. While I don’t always do well, I always learn something new that I can take into the next competition.”

After graduation planned for 2024, Whitehead says he’d like to start his own cyber security firm, perhaps with a focus on digital forensics incident response.

Walton ranked 19^th out of 1,747 officers who completed the program that teaches digital forensic-examination techniques to carry out investigations on computers, network storage systems, cellphones and other devices.

“I always had a love of technology from an early age,” says Walton, who began working at the department as a dispatcher in 1991.

In 1995 he received a scholarship from UCF that allowed him to go to the police academy, and in 1996 he was assigned to the patrol division. Two years later he became a field training officer.

‘I realize that criminals are using computers to engage in crime and that law enforcement will have to learn how to handle electronic evidence.’

Then in 2000 his career took a turn when one of the department investigators asked his advice on a hacking case. Soon after, he began studying forensics.

“I realize that criminals are using computers to engage in crime and that law enforcement will have to learn how to handle electronic evidence,” he says.

In 2004 he was assigned to the UCFPD criminal investigation division, where he was the forensic investigator assigned to cases in which technology was used either as a tool (to hack a network or make an unauthorized access to an account) or a weapon (to make threats).

Last year he became part of the Secret Service’s Electronic Crime Task Force, helping state and local law enforcement agencies process electronic evidence.

“I have had the honor to work on everything from homicide to skimmer cases,” he says.

He also completed more than 600 forensic examinations last year and was ranked No. 3 in the nation.

“I am proud to represent UCF and the police department to law enforcement agencies across the nation,” he says.

Walton was honored Thursday in Titusville when he was presented his new award by Caroline O’Brien, the Secret Service’s Orlando special agent in charge.

“Detective Walton is one of the foremost experts on digital forensics in the United States and his efforts as part of the Secret Service Task Force have undoubtedly made Central Florida a safer place,” says Police Chief Carl Metzger. “The UCF Police Department is grateful that the U.S. Secret Service has recognized Detective Walton for his professionalism, expertise and hard work.”

“Each individual competitor needed to possess the knowledge and skills and perform all the work typically spread among a six-member team.”
— Tom Nedorost

Due to the pandemic, this year’s CyberForce competition shifted from an in-person test designed for teams to a virtual challenge designed for individual competitors. More than 450 college students from across the nation were selected to participate in the sixth annual competition, but only 201 students from 36 states earned points in the cybersecurity exercise intended to mimic the energy sector.

This year’s scenario required competitors to secure and report on a fictitious wind energy company in charge of more than 20,000 megawatts of electricity generation that had been experiencing abnormal network activity.

“Each individual competitor needed to possess the knowledge and skills and perform all the work typically spread among a six-member team,” says Associate Lecturer of Computer Science Tom Nedorost, faculty advisor for known as Hack@UCF. “Michael demonstrated both exceptional breadth and depth of skills and knowledge required to configure, secure and defend multiple Linux and Windows servers, networks, firewalls and [industrial control systems] operating turbines of commercial windmills.”

A digital forensics graduate student, Roberts earned a bachelor’s in information technology from UCF in 2019 and is a member of the Hack@UCF team that placed second at last year’s CyberForce competition and first in the 2018 competition. He has also been captain of the teams that placed second in 2018, 2019 and 2020 at the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition as well as the teams that placed first at the Panoply National Competition in 2017 and 2018 and the Leidos Cyber Challenge in 2017.

“I’m just excited to see my hard work pay off and to be recognized by the Department of Energy for getting second place,” says Roberts. “I am glad that there are competitions like this that improve the visibility of the work we do. These competitions are training undergraduate students, so they gain new skills, as well as people like me who are already in the industry, so we can gain additional skills that can be applied on the job.”

In addition to having an active role in Hack@UCF, Roberts has completed internships at Northrop Grumman, IBM and Chick-fil-A, and currently works as an information security engineer at Abbott Laboratories in Orlando.

“I am glad that there are competitions like this that improve the visibility of the work we do.”
— Michael Roberts ’19

“Cybersecurity really has two sides,” Roberts says. “There’s the offensive side where you’re trying to break into a company to test whether they’re secure or not, and then you let them know how they can be improved; and then there’s the defensive side where you secure the company from attacks. I interned at different places to get a variety of experience and to discover what I liked best. For the past year or so, I’ve been working in the healthcare field, and it feels nice to be making some very important healthcare products more secure, especially given this pandemic.”

According to the Center for Cyber Safety and Education, unfilled cybersecurity careers are expected to reach more than 1.8 million by 2022 — a 20% increase in demand since 2015.

The DOE established the CyberForce competition to address this growing need, by raising awareness of energy sector cybersecurity as a career path among budding professionals.

“The American cybersecurity workforce is facing a gap in talent, and this competition is an exciting, engaging part of helping to fill that gap,” says Nick Andersen, principal deputy assistant secretary of the DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response. “Every year, we see incredibly promising students competing in the CyberForce Competition, and this year was no exception.”