As cyber attacks become more common, Tougaloo College has established a cybersecurity clinic to protect and educate the underserved.

The clinic, which opened earlier this month, provides free cybersecurity services to entities that cannot afford them. Specifically, they are serving churches, healthcare entities, small businesses, and community organizations. The clinic also provides cyber awareness training for Tougaloo’s students, faculty, staff and community clients.

“Every aspect of [how] we live, there’s always a cyber threat,” said Demetria White, director of the clinic. “And that’s a growing field that our students really need to be exposed to, they need to receive training in it.”

Tougaloo received a $1 million grant from the Google Cybersecurity Clinics Fund, which gives colleges and universities funding to start their own cybersecurity clinics. They serve their communities while giving students hands-on experience in the field. 

Cybersecurity is a combination of strategies and practices to protect an entities’ data from internal and external attacks.

Sharron Streeter, the clinic’s client liaison, warned about the lack of cybersecurity awareness. “Most people think, ‘well, it’s not going to be me, I’m just a little fry.’ But, it can happen to anyone, and we know that one single breach can impact millions of people at a time.”

Cybersecurity attacks can compromise private information, such as addresses, bank accounts, and more. And they’re becoming more and more common. The 2023 Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report found that the number of firms experiencing cyberattacks rose to 53% that year. 36% of those were on firms with 10 or less employees.

Computer science majors Aeries Hoskins and Noel Ricks are on the clinic’s internal advisory committee. leading the clinic’s first cohort of interns. Applicants can be from any major, but must have taken the “Security Awareness” course and submit an application with a letter of recommendation. The final cohort will be revealed when the clinic opens for operation in January.

Ricks hopes that the clinic will expose more students to the field. “I hope that they can see that cybersecurity isn’t just for computer science, it’s for everyone,” said Ricks.

“People can log into your phone, take everything from you and then go on about their day. And you would never know that they ever did that,” said Hoskins.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Oct. 20, 1942

Dozens of Black leaders from the South convened in Durham, North Carolina, to address the problem of increasing racial tension. While Black soldiers fought on the battlefields of World War II, the leaders recalled the mistreatment of Black soldiers returning from World War I, “a sweeping surge of bitterness and rebuff that … constitutes one of the ugliest scars on the fair face of our nation.” 

What emerged was the “Durham Manifesto,” calling for the end of segregation, the poll tax, the “white” primary and racial discrimination. 

“We regard the ballot as a safeguard of democracy,” the document read. “Any discrimination against citizens in the exercise of the voting privilege, on account of race or poverty, is detrimental to the freedom of these citizens and to the integrity of the State.” 

The document also decried Jim Crow laws that barred and punished Black Americans as well as mistreatment by police. “These abuses, which include wanton killings, and almost routine beatings of Negroes, whether they be guilty or innocent of an offense, should be stopped now, not only out of regard for the safety of Negroes, but of common respect for the dignity and fundamental purpose of the law,” the manifesto read. 

The document also called for better schools, better health care and living wages for workers. “The correction of these problems is not only a moral matter,” the manifesto concluded, “but a practical necessity in winning the war and in winning the peace.” 

Charles Spurgeon Johnson, one of the leading Black sociologists of the 20^th century, helped oversee the document. The manifesto helped lead to the creation of the Southern Regional Council, which pushed for school desegregation, voter registration, equal citizenship and anti-poverty projects.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Democrat Joe Biden won in the Mississippi Supreme Court central district by a comfortable margin of 220,405 votes to 193,785 votes against Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

While losing the 2020 election nationwide, Trump won Mississippi by an also comfortable margin of 756,764 votes to 539,393 votes. But the central district was a different story.

In elections with big turnouts, especially presidential elections, the central district is often a Democratic stronghold.

This November, it is a safe assumption that Vice President Kamala Harris will lose the state of Mississippi but will do as well if not better than Biden did in the central district.

And if Harris does have a strong showing in the 22-county central district, that should bode well for Supreme Court Justice Jim Kitchens, who currently is campaigning for a third term on the state’s highest court representing the aforementioned district.

What may be Kitchens’ easiest path to win reelection is to convince the central district voters he is more aligned with Harris than is his primary and most well funded opponent, state Sen. Jenifer Branning, R-Philadelphia.

Also running for the central district seat are Ceola James, a former Mississippi Court of Appeals judge, and Hinds County private practice attorneys Byron Carter and Abby Gale Robinson.

If no candidate garners a majority vote on Nov. 5, a runoff will be held between the top two vote-getters. Kitchens’ best bet to win the seat is in the first election on Nov. 5, when all the Harris voters will be going to the polls. A runoff election for a Supreme Court race days before the Thanksgiving holiday is the definition of a low turnout race.

There are not expected to be many competitive races this election cycle in Mississippi, but the central district Supreme Court race stands out. It also is vitally important. Supreme Court justices have significant impact on many aspects of the state.

Kitchens, a former district attorney, and fellow central district Justice Leslie King, are not as conservative as the other seven Mississippi Supreme Court justices. Some might describe Kitchens as a middle-of-the-road jurist, while others might contend he is a liberal.

At any rate, it is less likely that a non-conservative moniker will hurt him in the central district than in other parts of the state.

The problem that Kitchens might face is getting his credentials and philosophy out to the voters.

Judicial races in Mississippi are nonpartisan, and candidates have more restraints on what they can say on the campaign trail. And quite frankly, voters often do not pay attention to judicial races.

While judicial races are nonpartisan, that does not mean that political parties cannot endorse candidates. Branning has the backing of the Mississippi Republican Party.

Branning, who was elected to the Senate in 2015, currently serves as chair of the Transportation Committee. She has been one of the more conservative members of the Senate, and she is touting her conservativism on the campaign trail.

In the Senate, Branning voted against changing the state flag to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the design in 2020 and voted against expanding Medicaid to provide health insurance to the working poor earlier this year. In 2023, she voted against a measure that eventually became law to allow women to remain on Medicaid for 12 months after giving birth opposed to 60 days.

In television commercials, she bills herself as “a constitutional conservative.” Kitchens’ initial television commercial took the approach of Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann by making the advertisement a play on his name. His wife maintains in the commercial he needs to be on the high court to keep him out of her kitchen.

Whether a cute commercial and a district stacked to his advantage will ensure a third term on the state’s highest court for Jim Kitchens remains to be seen.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.