August 18, 2019: In 2014 not long after the National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the N.S.A. was monitoring the phone calls and e-mail of American citizens, Congress passed the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, to “strengthen cybersecurity research and development, workforce development and education.” The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act also spurred the N.S.A. to do something unexpected: it began sponsoring summer cybersecurity camps for children.

This summer, through a program called GenCyber, the N.S.A. is running a hundred and twenty-two cybersecurity camps across the country. Among these camps there are camps specifically for girls in South Dakota, Maryland, Puerto Rico, and South Carolina. Other camps, such as Camp Cryptobot in New York have mixed genders but are particularly focused on bringing girls, especially girls of color, to the camp. Camp director, Pauline Mosley, a professor of information technology states, “We have to educate women that cybersecurity is not a man’s domain.” Almost all the camp instructors there are women; many of them are women of color.

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Read more: A Summer Camp for the Next Generation of N.S.A. Agents (newyorker.com)