Seeking the Next Generation of Cyber Security Talent
Cyber Tractor Challenge will give college students a chance to work on John Deere equipment
This summer we are hosting a week-long invitational event at one of our test farms for college students pursuing a career in cyber security.
The Cyber Tractor Challenge to be held July 11-15 near Des Moines, Iowa, will give about 20 students the opportunity to take cyber security classes and work on our embedded industrial control programs on real equipment.
"This is an opportunity for us to work with some of the best and brightest who are looking to pursue a career in cyber security," said Carl Kubalsky, Business Information Security Officer for Tech Stack and Cloud. "We want to recruit talented individuals who will help us maintain our commitment to protecting our customers’ machines and data."
The Cyber Tractor Challenge was modeled after similar cyber security events held by other industries, such as the "CyberAuto Challenge™". In March, Deere leveraged relationships with several professional organizations such as SWE (Society of Women Engineers), NSBE (National Society of Black Engineers), and SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers) to recruit students to participate.
“We are excited to host this unique event where selected students will attend an all-expenses-paid week of assessing real John Deere equipment led by experts in the cybersecurity field, learn of our student employment opportunities, and grow their network in a highly competitive field," said Amelia Wietting, the senior software engineer leading planning for the event.