{"id":198130,"date":"2026-03-21T21:43:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T01:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/21\/careers-in-cybersecurity-los-angeles-standard-newspaper\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T00:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T04:50:14","slug":"careers-in-cybersecurity-los-angeles-standard-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/21\/careers-in-cybersecurity-los-angeles-standard-newspaper\/","title":{"rendered":"Careers in cybersecurity – Los Angeles Standard Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Careers in cybersecurity – Los Angeles Standard Newspaper<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/index.php\/career\/1167-careers-in-cybersecurity.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-21 21:43:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: lastandardnewspaper.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

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\nCurtis Carpenter, a senior information technology security analyst, and David Kinder, a cloud\/automation engineer.
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\nBy Jason Lewis
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\nToday people live in a cyber world.\u00a0 Automation has connected many daily tasks and systems that people rely on to various forms of technology, with most of those being connected to the Internet.\u00a0 The reliance on technology has led to the need for cybersecurity to protect systems, networks, and data from digital attacks.
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\n\u201cAnything that you can connect to the Internet, those things are vulnerable,\u201d said Curtis Carpenter, senior information technology security analyst at California State Polytechnic University-Pomona.\u00a0 \u201cWe have them on the same home networks that we have our computers on that have our taxes.\u00a0 So it\u2019s not something that only affects a few people or large businesses.\u00a0 This affects all of us.\u201d
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\nThere is a large cybersecurity industry to ensure that people\u2019s information is protected.\u00a0 Like many technology fields, there are more available jobs than people trained to do them, and Black professionals are underrepresented in those fields.
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\n\u201cOur world is increasingly becoming dependent on technology and as that happens, there\u2019s going to continue to be a need for more and more qualified cyber professionals,\u201d Carpenter said.\u00a0 \u201cThe unemployment rate for cyber professionals is extremely low, and it pays very well.\u00a0 Our ultimate goal is to see more African Americans and students of color in information technology or cybersecurity, as well as STEM overall.\u201d
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\nCarpenter and David Kinder, a cloud\/automation engineer, have created a CyberPatriot team through their fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Iota Zeta Lambda Chapter (Compton), which meets at City of Hope LA in Inglewood.\u00a0 CyberPatriot is a national youth cyber education STEM program of the Air & Space Forces Association.\u00a0 It was created to inspire K-12 students toward careers in cybersecurity or other STEM disciplines critical to the nation\u2019s future.\u00a0 CyberPatriot hosts cyber defense competitions and cyber camps.
\nThe lack of Black professionals and students in technology fields begins with young students not having the same access as students from more affluent communities.
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\n\u201cThe interesting thing about it is that there are schools in Los Angeles that have participated in it for years but you don\u2019t often see schools that have demographics that have a lot of African American students participating,\u201d Carpenter said.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s hard for them to aspire to be in a career if they don\u2019t know that it exists.\u00a0 We want to expose them to that.\u00a0 And there aren\u2019t a lot of African American professionals in the cyber industry and the IT industry as well in comparison to other ethnic groups.\u00a0 One of the ways that we want to change that is to try to expose them to this early through this program.\u201d
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\nThe cyber program teaches the basic cyber principles and cyber defense.
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\n\u201cWe focus on three major things,\u201d Kinder said.\u00a0 \u201cFirst, keeping things confidential.\u00a0 You have files on your computer that you don\u2019t want people to have access to.\u00a0 Protecting that is a part of cybersecurity.\u00a0 Making sure that you have the right permissions on that and making sure that the right people have access to those things.\u00a0 Second, we focus on integrity.\u00a0 There are hackers out there who may not want to steal your data, but they want to change or delete your data.\u00a0 And the third thing is access to your systems.\u00a0 Who can log into your systems.\u201d
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\nLearning how to prevent hackers from gaining entry into systems is a large part of learning how to become a cybersecurity specialist.
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\n\u201cHacking is offensive by nature,\u201d Carpenter said.\u00a0 \u201cA hacker is trying to get into something.\u00a0 For the students, we focus more on the defensive principles.\u00a0 Locking systems down, making sure that its configured properly to keep people out of systems, knowing who should have credentials, making sure that the environment is hardened so that you can keep threat actors out of the system.\u00a0 The infrastructure by the CyberPatriot organization is a series of systems, either Windows or Linux, that the students are given and they have to learn how to harden them.\u201d
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\nOne of the great things about the cybersecurity profession is that there are a lot of unfilled jobs, making it easier than other professions to obtain employment.
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\n\u201cThere are hundreds of thousands of jobs, cybersecurity positions, that are available right now,\u201d Carpenter said.\u00a0 \u201cIn addition to that, not only are they open and available, when you look at the medium salary, those are very high paying jobs.\u00a0 If you have plenty of jobs that are open and available, but our students aren\u2019t getting exposed to it, that\u2019s an opportunity that our youth is missing.\u00a0 These are great careers with great salaries that can help sustain their future families.\u201d
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\nMany cybersecurity professionals receive college degrees in computer science, computer information systems, and computer engineering.\u00a0 Carpenter has coached collegian cybersecurity teams, and he has hired college students for IT assistants.\u00a0 He said that many of those students started their cybersecurity education before they made it to the college level.
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\n\u201cI was looking at resumes and I could see that they just graduated from high school, and their resume looks like somebody who has been in the IT field for three years,\u201d Carpenter said.\u00a0 \u201cThat may even include professional certifications.\u00a0 I\u2019d ask them how they were coming out of high school with all of these skills and certifications, and they told me that they did CyberPatriot while in high school.\u00a0 So they come into college with an advanced set of skills.\u00a0 They\u2019re already ahead of the curve which puts them in positions for internships.\u00a0 I have a student who has been working at Boeing since he was a freshman, and that\u2019s because he had this advanced skillset because he took this type of program all through high school.\u00a0 Those are the type of experiences that we want our students to have access to.\u201d
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\nFor the children who are in this program, many of them entered without much technological experience, and they all showed massive improvement.
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\n\u201cOne young lady had not done anything like this before,\u201d Kinder said.\u00a0 \u201cWhen faced with the challenges she was all in.\u00a0 It was more of a puzzle that she had to figure out.\u00a0 She learned all of the concepts and techniques so that she could figure out this puzzle.\u00a0 While doing that, she learned a new skillset that she\u2019ll be able to use in the future.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing as a trainer to see this happen because as we\u2019re going over the material, we don\u2019t know if it\u2019s really sticking.\u00a0 But in the moment when they\u2019re in the competition, it\u2019s amazing to see them do this.\u201d
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\nWhile many people in the industry have college degrees, it is not required as there are tech bootcamps that are certificate programs.
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\n\u201cStudents can do self study for some of these certifications if they have the drive,\u201d Kinder said.\u00a0 \u201cThey can use those certifications to get jobs right out of high school.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to necessarily go to college.\u00a0 You can pick up these certifications and get an entry-level position, then work your way up to a six-figure salary.\u201d
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\nKinder also points out that he\u2019s seen many people enter this field who came from unrelated professional fields, so making a career change is very possible.
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\nFor more information contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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