All ages gathered at St. Ambrose University Saturday to learn about the dangers in the cyber world and how to protect themselves against them. 

“It’s CornCon. It is  a kids hacking camp and then there is an adult track as well,” said CornCon Chair Shadrack Roberts. “We have Cyber security professionals, researchers, academics, federal and government employees, there’s just a wide variety of people.”

CornCon is the Quad Cities’ second annual Cyber Security Conference. Guest speakers talked about various sides of the issue. The goal of the conference was to educate people about the risks of the cyber world.

 “I’m actually the CEO of a medical laboratory that was hacked and it’s turned into a long seven year arduous ordeal. I write and speak about it really to educate people on how agencies work,” said author and speaker Michael J. Daugherty. “As long as you have a computer you’re impacted because your data is all over the place.”

There was also a kids track that included more interactive activities to send the same message.

” I think it’s important for people to come here because so they can use all this good knowledge for like good reasons when they grow up,” said 9-year old Jonathan Bergert.

There will definitely be a third CornCon next year, because the issue remains important in the modern world. Just like a lock can be picked, any data can be hacked. 

More cyber security resources: http://corncon.net/resources/