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Cyber, Cybersecurity, education

Cyber Round Up: Higher Ed. Establishes foothold in Cybersecurity

  • Illinois State Meets Growing Need for Cybersecurity Professionals (ISU News): According to this news release, Illinois State University (“ISU”) is trying to prepare students to fill the projected 18 percent growth in Information Security jobs over the next ten years.  ISUs School of Information Technology’s Information Assurance and Security has 125 students and their new cybersecurity program slated to launch in the fall of 2017 has room for even more, according to this release.  To help drive interest and maintain relevance in a dynamic industry, ISU has supported an annual cyberdefense competition which is open to Illinois high school students and is currently in its fifth year, according to the release.  Given the anticipated rate of job growth within this sector one can expect to see more and more educators exploring training options in this burgeoning field.  The full text of the article is here.
  • University of Oregon: Cybersecurity Looks for Students to Counter the Dark Art of Hacking (The Register-Guard): According to Diane Dietz’s article, the University of Oregon (“UO”)  is holding its sixth annual Oregon cybersecurity day to bring in top cybersecurity experts for key sessions on the current state of cybersecurity.  Associate Professor Jun Li created the UO Center for Cybersecurity and Privacy last year and began to draft plans for an advanced UO degree in the field of cybersecurity, according to the article. The article states that thus far Li has received a $507,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to examine fraud and attacks on social networks and OU at the same time received $1.5M from the US Department of Energy to examine cyberattacks in the context of the nation’s grid infrastructure.  Demonstrating that cybersecurity is being taken seriously and early adopters in higher education seem to be gaining a foothold.  The full text of the article is here.
  • UC Recognized as Cybersecurity Leader in Education (UC News): According to a University of Cincinnati (“UC”) press release, UC has been designated by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education through 2021.  UC launched a Cybersecurity track within the undergraduate Information Technology program, followed by a Master’s level program launched a year later, according to the release.  The release indicates that UC is now the ninth institution in the US to contain both NSA Centers of Academic Excellence in both Cyber Op and Cyber Defense and this solidifies UC’s position as a national leader in cybersecurity education.  The full release is here.

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