Background, Mission, Vision, Core Values

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world!” – Nelson Mandela

Background

Cyber Security Days (CSD) learning events are created by the National Capital community, for the community. The event is what we collectively make of it, each year.

We leverage the generous financial and staff support, venue, commercial services and volunteers of Algonquin College and the Algonquin College Student Association to make this happen.

Michael Stepchuk, MC

Michael Stepchuk, MC

Our organization has a nine-member Board of Governors (BoG), which includes staff from Algonquin College and other members of the broader community. The BoG oversees and steers the event. We also have an approximate 40 person ‘Working Committee’ where a lot of the day-to-day preparation and ‘day of’ work gets done. Virtually All CSD members are volunteers. We may hire a specialist from time to time when we need specialist input and assistance. Without our very strong volunteer support that we receive from Algonquin College and its students, partners, sponsors and many members of the community, this event would simply not be possible.

Our business model is to raise sufficient funds each year, gained from Algonquin College financial contributions, as well as from our generous Foundation Sponsors such as Cisco, FireEye, Fortinet, and RSA in order to create a unique ‘no charge’ conference. This is in keeping with Algonquin College’s belief that not all learning should cost money. We then strive to assemble a highly engaging program of amazing thought leaders, primarily from around Canada, all of whom give freely of their time. Being located within the National Capital region allows us to leverage hundreds of high tech cyber security companies, the Federal Government including Public Safety Canada, the Canadian Forces and the Department of National Defence, Invest Ottawa and many other supporting organizations. Each year we grow stronger and bring more partners on board!

We strive hard to involve as many Schools and Institutes from Algonquin College’s rich and varied academic programs, as possible. This provides interested students with experiential learning opportunities within a major production and provides program approved ‘co-curricular hour’ support. This approach helps connect our youth and future cyber security/privacy practitioners with our current ones. It helps lead to initial employment which can be challenging for students and grads to find. It helps provide our rich community of advanced and start-up cyber security firms with amazing talent, leading to their future leaders. By working together in this fashion, we help create and maintain a vibrant National Capital area cyber security focus.

We try and align the event with major international dates that focus on cyber security and privacy. We held CSD 1.0 within International Cyber Security month (October). CSD 2.0 is being held within International Privacy month (February). Next year? Not sure yet….

Mission

Our mission is to educate and inspire cyber-security futures for Canadian youth.

Vision

To be a Canadian incubator of community-based cyber security education and awareness.

Core Values

  • safe_share_padlockDriven by today’s and tomorrow’s cybersecurity experts
  • Canadian (Content, Thought Leaders) wherever possible
  • Promoting Ethics & Integrity
  • Non-Profit Oriented
  • Supporting Canadian Communities
  • Developing Careers in Cybersecurity