CISCO AICTE Virtual Internship Program 2022 (Summer Internship)
Cybersecurity has become an important part of modern life and it is an essential part of business operations. It includes protecting your computer system against malicious attacks, data breaches, malware, viruses and spyware.
You should know that you are not your own island anymore; you are part of a global network that connects millions of people all over the world via the Internet. In this summer time, I got an opportunity to do an internship for the same domain under the amazing Cisco AICTE Virtual Internship program 2022.
I am amazed by the experience that I gained over this internship and got to explore this domain in more detail which helped me in enhancing my skill set and expanded my knowledge and because of the benefit that I got from this, I would like to share my views for this, starting with a short introduction of what this program is all about.
In an ongoing effort to make skilled youth a national priority and make India a hub for digital talent, Cisco, AICTE, and NASSCOM FutureSkills PRIME have launched the intern program to offer virtual internships in networking, programming, and cyber security through Cisco Networking Academy and its partners. This creative collaboration between businesses and the government will develop a talent pool for the IT jobs in the industry.
Students from Cisco Networking Academy institutions enrolling in first, second, or third-year engineering or technical degree programs are eligible for the program.
Now, for the Cyber security domain, we went through three milestones in form of training and a project which involves a problem statement that we have to work upon.
The pieces of training are:
Introduction to Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity Essentials
Introduction to packet tracer
Hovering over them one by one, let’s start with what all is in the Introduction to Cybersecurity. This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the concepts, methods, and tools used in the development and implementation of secure systems. Students will develop a comprehensive understanding of security concepts, principles, and practices. The course provides a foundation for students who plan to pursue careers in information technology (IT), network engineering, or computer security.
The Cybersecurity Essentials course offered in the Cisco Virtual Internship Program is an immersive learning experience. It is designed to provide you with the knowledge necessary to help protect your organization from cyber threats.
This course includes an overview of threat actors, their motivations, and how they operate; an overview of different threat vectors that can be used for cyber attacks; a discussion of common tools used by cybercriminals and how they work; an overview of several penetration testing tools that can be used to test security and vulnerabilities; an overview of incident response techniques; and more. The difference between risk management and security, how hackers break into networks and steal information, how viruses spread through email, file sharing, and other means, and the importance of network segmentation and authentication are also some of the major learnings from this training.
In last, Introduction to packet Tracer course will teach you how to use packet tracer which is a tool to understand how networks work, and how they can be used to build your own network. The course will introduce you to the tools required for packet tracing and include hands-on labs where you will practice using them.
The course is meant for anyone who wants to learn about networking and troubleshooting TCP/IP networks.
After completion of all these, we will get certification which can be considered the first step toward a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of the magnitude of the influence that the internet and cybersecurity have on our day-to-day activities.
In continuation, each student was given a project in which there is a problem statement that needed to be solved within the given specific time which will check the capabilities and knowledge that the student gained through the above mentioned training. My Problem was that I have to Design a secure network for my institution with the help of a packet tracer tool. In addition, I have to apply my learnings from the NetAcad cyber security course to upgrade/secure the existing network of my college.
I made this project and submitted it and finally got my project status as “Approved” which marks the completion of this 2-month long internship for me.
I would like to thank my mentor Mr. Sushit Soni who helped me with this and under his guidance, I got to explore such an interesting domain. Also, like to express my gratitude to the School of Computer Science Engineering and Technology (SCSET) at Bennett University for providing me with such wonderful opportunities.