To celebrate Cybersecurity Awareness Month, UA Little Rock is profiling students majoring in cybersecurity. Meet Bryce Ebsen, a sophomore Cybersecurity Club member.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am a sophomore majoring in cybersecurity. I am from Little Rock, Arkansas, and am 19 years old. I like to play video games and practice my cybersecurity skills, but I also enjoy archery, taekwondo, and bladesmithing.

What made you decide to pursue cybersecurity? 

I have always enjoyed coding and computer science. I even competed in several robotics competitions in middle school and high school as one of the programmers on the team. Although I enjoyed that, I thought cybersecurity would be more fun than programming, and so far I am not disappointed in my choice.

Why do you think cybersecurity is more important now than ever before? 

I think cybersecurity is more important now than ever before simply because of how widespread the internet is. Nowadays, just about everything can be connected to the internet. I have even seen refrigerators that connect to the internet, and all of these need to be protected or an attacker could take advantage of them.

What opportunities have you gotten through UA Little Rock that you might not have had otherwise? 

The biggest opportunity I have gotten through UA Little Rock would be getting to be a part of the Cybersecurity Club. This club competes in many different cybersecurity competitions and is a great way to learn more about cybersecurity. It also brings in guest speakers every once in a while. For example, a month or so ago, we had someone from a bank come and speak, and he discussed what kinds of cybersecurity operations and job openings his company had.

What advice would you give the average person on how to keep their information secure?

The advice I would give the average person would be to use strong passwords for your account information and don’t reuse passwords.