FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 12, 2019

Contact:

Kathleen R. McMorrow

The Communications Optic, LLC.

Phone: 973.665.8167

Email: [email protected]

(Wanaque, NJ) Today, Cynthia Hetherington, Hg’s founder and president, will be training young women at the second annual Rocket Girls CyberSpace Camp at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Merritt Island, Florida. Sponsored by AT&T and Dakota State University’s CybHER program, over a dozen national leaders in cyber security will mentor 15 young girls, giving them a rocket boost to their knowledge of mapping the internet, forensic investigations, social engineering, cryptography, and open source intelligence.

The Rocket Girls will also get to tour the space center, see the space shuttle Atlantis, and share a meal with an astronaut. Ms. Hetherington will provide “hands-online” guided and assigned activities on the girls’ laptops, helping them explore and search the Internet, find profiles, and understand the intricacies of social media “friends.”

“On this 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, it is a tremendous honor to be mentoring Rocket Girls at the Kennedy Space Center,” noted Cynthia Hetherington. “As we now know, strong, intelligent women contributed significantly to this momentous human achievement, but it took a book and a movie nearly half a century later for them to be truly recognized. Getting girls excited about cyber security today plants the seeds for their shining future in whatever field they ultimately choose. There is no longer a place for “hidden figures” in our society, and I am pleased to help shed light on those who came before us and those who will follow.”

Dr. Pam Rowland and Dr. Ashley Podhradsky founded the CybHER program at Dakota State University (DSU) in 2013.  CybHER conducts activities at K-12 schools, science centers, and libraries and has reached over 10,000 girls and women. Each summer it hosts a GenCyber Girls in CybHER Security week-long camp for middle school girls where they explore all things cyber.

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About Cynthia Hetherington, MLS, MSM, CFE, CII

Cynthia Hetherington is the founder and president of Hetherington Group, a consulting, publishing, and training firm that leads in due diligence, corporate intelligence, and cyber investigations by keeping pace with the latest security threats and assessments. She has authored three books on how to conduct investigations, is the publisher of the newsletter, Data2know: Internet and Online Intelligence, and has trained over 180,000 investigators, security professionals, attorneys, accountants, auditors, military intelligence professionals, and federal, state, and local agencies on best practices. In 2015, Ms. Hetherington founded the OSMOSIS Institute, which hosts the annual OSMOSIS Conference. Hundreds of investigators across the nation gain insights into Open Source Intelligence and receive training from the most recognized social media and open source experts in North America. Enterprising Women Magazine honored Ms. Hetherington with a 2019 Enterprising Woman of the Year Award. She was named the 2019 CybHER Warrior by CybHER, an Institute within the Dakota State University Madison Cyber Labs. Ms. Hetherington was shortlisted for the coveted 2019 Women in IT New York’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award and is a 2019 Entrepreneur Of the Year New Jersey Award Finalist bestowed by Ernst & Young LLP’s Entrepreneur Of the Year Awards.