Pipeline for Cybersecurity Careers Aligned to National Standards

国家对熟练的网络安全专业人员的需求是有据可查的。尽管许多两年制大学都开发了培训网络安全技术人员的项目，但大多数雇主不会雇佣缺乏工作经验的候选人。该项目的目标是建立一个供学生使用的安全操作中心(SOC)，将SOC练习纳入网络安全课程，并使生成的课程符合国家标准。SOC的创建与最先进的网络安全课程相结合，将产生一个可重复使用的学术管道，可以培养出合格的网络安全技术人员，他们准备在毕业后进入网络安全工作队伍。更多、更多样化的网络安全劳动力将带来更安全的全球数字环境。该项目将开发一个模型，用于培训网络安全专业的学生，以回应雇主的反馈。通过建立一个在SOC实践经验丰富的课程，这个项目将促进我们对如何在墨西哥湾沿岸地区培养高度可就业的网络安全毕业生的理解。SOC将提供来自学院防火墙、入侵检测系统、终端检测软件和威胁情报平台的实时馈送，供学生监控。该项目旨在培训学生，并记录培训过程，以提供供其他机构使用的路线图。评估计划将利用形成性和终结性两个部分来评估计划的忠实性和有效性。该项目由高级技术教育计划资助，该计划专注于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The national need for skilled cybersecurity professionals is well-documented. Although many two-year colleges have developed programs to train cybersecurity technicians, most employers will not hire candidates who lack job experience. The goal of this project is to establish a Security Operations Center (SOC) for student use, to incorporate SOC exercises into the cybersecurity curriculum, and to align the resulting curriculum to national standards. The creation of an SOC coupled with a state-of-the-art cybersecurity curriculum will result in a reproducible academic pipeline that can produce qualified cybersecurity technicians who are prepared to enter the cybersecurity workforce upon graduation. A larger, more varied cybersecurity workforce will result in a safer global digital landscape.This project will develop a model for training cybersecurity students in response to employer feedback. By building a curriculum steeped in hands on experience in an SOC this project will advance our understanding of how to prepare highly employable cybersecurity graduates in the Gulf Coast region. The SOC will provide live feeds from the college’s firewall, intrusion detection system, endpoint detection software, and threat intelligence platforms for students to monitor. This project will be designed to train students, and to document the training process to provide a roadmap for other institutions to use. The evaluation plan will make use of both formative and summative components to assess the fidelity and effectiveness of the program. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the Nation's economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.