Homeland Security –IT’s Integral Role

The Department of Homeland Security is burdened with the daunting task of ensuring the safety of the whole country and preventing terrorist attacks within the borders of the United States. And while it employs more than 240,000 personnel and has a wide array of preventative weapons in its arsenal, probably none is as significant as its technology. 

From the pullover stop of front line police officers to the data mining performed by the National Security Agency, Information Technology is an integral part of modern day law enforcement and terrorism prevention. Police officers using laptops in their patrol cars can perform near instantaneous threat assessment about the vehicles and drivers they stop. FBI, NSA and Homeland Security agents can cull through mountains of metadata to tie suspected terrorists to their networks. And behind-the-scenes diligently working IT techs can help to turn raw data into actionable information.

IT defensive strategists need to be more vigilant than ever –because cyber criminals are! The bad guys are harnessing the power of computers, networks and the Internet to be more innovative in their destruction. Terrorists send messages of propaganda and recruitment through the Internet but also conduct real-time operations through cyperspac using an array of technological tools to carry out their sinister missions, while striving to remain undetected. 

That’s where cybersecurity comes into action. Cybersecurity and the IT specialists behind it are the very first levels of protection for our nation’s critical infrastructure, economy, power grids and security systems. 

And cybersecurity isn’t just the backbone of national security; it’s a multibillion dollar industry with ever-expanding growth potential. The more hackers work to attack, the more security needs to be intensified to prevent and respond.

The Information Technology Professional program at Career Quest Learning Centers trains students to work in the Information Technology industry by teaching the fundamentals of computer hardware and software troubleshooting, networking technologies for local area and wide area networks and a host of real world professional development skills and customer relations.