Cybersecurity is not a new topic. It has been a valuable concern for decades, but cybersecurity is now the hot topic in both the tech community and in a wide-ranging field of disciplines.
The recent Equifax hacks and the presidential election are two examples of the impact cybersecurity has on our lives, but people can find themselves vulnerable on the internet on much smaller scales. Most students are familiar with the “NEW PHISH EMAIL” messages from UW Information Technology concerning security breaches.
These current events and everyday concerns prompted Gov. Matt Mead to propose a new cybersecurity program at UW. The Cybersecurity Education and Research Center was created to address security issues that plague everyone from government officials handling sensitive information to college students worrying about the safety of their research project content.
The program will not offer a major or a minor, but is instead a concentration for students in both computer science and other backgrounds to apply to an endless list of potential professions.
Nearly every aspect of life now deals with cybersecurity issues. Students may enter into fields in finance, government, business or medicine to name a few. An increasingly popular sector of cybersecurity careers specific to Wyoming is in energy transfer and protection against those who may attempt to hack the energy grid and disrupt power distribution.
A certificate will be presented to students who complete the course criteria which has been set forth by the computer science program. Dr. Mike Borowczak has been putting together classes and a lab that will provide students with skill sets to be successful in a world where everything demands cybersecurity.
“Cybersecurity has been identified not only as a way for students to get jobs, but also as a need for society,” Dr. Borowczak said.
The department is in the process of becoming a recognized Center of Academic Excellence through the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency.
The course is structured to meet the requirements of the DHS and NSA to ensure employers that students with the certificate meet the standards of these agencies.
Students outside of the computer science program must also complete a few foundational computer science classes to obtain the certificate.
CEDAR was launched earlier this month and is still waiting on approval from the Board of Trustees, which it expects to receive sometime in February or March with the certificate becoming available to students next fall.
Due to the specific nature of the program, there are no current plans for the program to evolve into a major or a minor, Dr. Borowczak does not rule out the expansion of CEDAR.
“There’s always a plan. Likely what would happen is it would evolve into a master’s program,” Dr. Borowczak said.
Jacob Wild is a senior from Evanston studying computer science and business. Wild interned at the CEDAR center and says employers have taken an interest in his time spent there.
“More often than not my potential employers have asked about [CEDAR] and responded favorably to it. The best response I got was from the Department of Defense when I applied for a position in Alaska as a cybersecurity specialist with the Airforce and Army,” Wild said.
Wild believes CEDAR will bring more students to Laramie who are interested in cybersecurity in addition to their chosen area of study.
CEDAR hopes to bring students an experience unique to UW by merging cybersecurity with data science, a field Dr. Borowczak and others see as the future of cybersecurity.
“Our implementation is different than other schools,” Dr. Borowczak said. “There are more attackers than there are people solving the problem, so the only way to do it is with numbers and math, so we are bringing data science into it.”
CEDAR has been hosting outreach programs for students interested in the program. The Lunch & Learn series can be found on WyoCast. The next event will be held on President’s Day, Mon. Feb. 19 around noon. More information will be posted on CEDAR’s webpage in the near future.
