Collaborating with Girl Scouts of the USA for First-Ever National Cybersecurity Badges!

Professionals of the future will contend with cybersecurity challenges unprecedented in scope and sophistication. Girl Scouts of the USA and Palo Alto Networks recognize that we all must work together to solve these challenges by creating the innovative cybersecurity problem solvers of tomorrow, which means educating today. Building interest in STEM at a young age is crucial. According to the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), 69 percent of women who do not have a career in information technology cited not knowing what opportunities were available to them as reasons they did not pursue one.

Today we are extremely excited to share that Palo Alto Networks will be working with Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) to deliver the first-ever national cybersecurity badges for Girl Scouts  in grades K–12. Girl Scout badges are insignia Girl Scouts earn and display on their uniforms to demonstrate mastery of a given topic. Working with a panel of expert cybersecurity advisors from Palo Alto Networks and other organizations, GSUSA and Palo Alto Networks are developing a series of 18 cybersecurity badges. We expect to roll out the first of these badges in September 2018.

Our goal is simple: We will provide cybersecurity education to over a million girls throughout the United States while helping them to develop their problem-solving and leadership skills.

For more:

• Read this week’s full announcement.
• Learn about how Girl Scouts transforms today’s girls into tomorrow’s leaders, and how to volunteer, reconnect, donate, or join at girlscouts.org.

Rick Howard

[Palo Alto Networks Research Center]