With thousands of cybersecurity job openings around the state — and entry-level positions that can command a six-figure starting salary — training the next generation of security engineers is a key challenge for Connecticut.Colleges around the state say the fast-changing curriculum, difficulty of retaining expert faculty, importance of linking closely to industry, and looming challenge […]
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With thousands of cybersecurity job openings around the state — and entry-level positions that can command a six-figure starting salary — training the next generation of security engineers is a key challenge for Connecticut.
Colleges around the state say the fast-changing curriculum, difficulty of retaining expert faculty, importance of linking closely to industry, and looming challenge of AI make cybersecurity one of the most dynamic fields in education right now.
Another challenge is the ever-widening circle of people who need to be trained in combating cyberattacks.
“It’s not going to be good enough for there to be 10% or 15% of computer scientists who fix everybody else’s problems,” said Benjamin Fuller, an associate professor in the computer science department at the University of Connecticut.
“We’re trying to make a push to all of our majors, everybody who’s touching software, that this is something that you have to be aware of too,” Fuller said.
In 2019, UConn opened its Altschuler Cybersecurity Lab, funded by a major donation from the Altschuler family and designed by Fuller, dedicated to a hands-on approach to information-security issues.
Every computer science major is required to attend a foundational course at the lab.
“We do a whirlwind tour of the most important things that you are likely to run across as a professional where cybersecurity matters,” Fuller said.
Fuller says student enrollment increases 20% to 25% each year. Of 1,600 undergrads in the computer science department, around 300 are cybersecurity specialists.
“We’ve gone from having three or four dedicated courses in cybersecurity to around 10 or 11 right now,” he said. “Similarly, we’ve gone from having probably five faculty whose primary area is cybersecurity to 10 or 11.”
He says the growth has allowed UConn to diversify its offerings within the cybersecurity concentration.
“I just met with a student who wants to do AI data analytics and cybersecurity,” he said. “I have another student who wants to do just the math behind cybersecurity, and that’s a totally viable career, too. We have enough offerings where we’re training different types of people now.”
That diversity extends beyond the computer science department.
“IT is the backbone of every business now. It’s a huge area of vulnerability,” said Stephen Fitzgerald, an instructor-in-residence at the UConn School of Business, and academic director for the analytics and information management major.
“We’ve all been trying to address the interdisciplinary nature of cybersecurity,” he said. “Our (computer science) folks do a great job at focusing on the foundation of computers, how they talk to one another, how they work.”
But an estimated 88% of data breaches involve some level of human interaction.
“And so a lot of it is faulty process that people can take advantage of,” said Fitzgerald. “Like the password controls that you have to log into your website or to your email. These have to be done correctly, because if they’re not, that’s how people get in.”
That means business professionals from many different fields need to have a grounding in cybersecurity.
For instance, Fitzgerald points out that licensure for CPAs is about to evolve to include competence in information security.
“We’ve also opened a lot of these classes to other areas of the university, and we’re seeing growth in all of the minors,” he said. “People come at it from all different angles.”
Reaching industry
Karen Bellnier at Mitchell College is widening the circle even further. She’s spent this year standing up a Digital Innovation Hub at the small New London school; the primary goal of the center is looking outward beyond the college walls to the needs of local companies.
“We’re really looking to establish relationships with area employers to support their recruitment and retention challenges,” she said.
Supported by a state grant from Connecticut’s Tech Talent Accelerator, and federal funding from the Department of Education, the hub offers primarily online classes, many of which are short and self-paced, allowing people who are working to earn professional certifications like those offered by CompTIA, the Computing Technology Industry Association.
She sees not only cybersecurity professionals coming in for training, but others arriving from paths like network management or compliance work — particularly in a region rich in government contractors.
Bellnier says the certifications she offers will also roll out to Mitchell’s undergrad students, so they can finish their degrees with industry-standard qualifications.
Fairfield University is another recipient of a Tech Talent grant, which will be used in a partnership with local companies, including Pitney Bowes, to develop a curriculum of hands-on cybersecurity activities.
Mirco Speretta, Fairfield’s director of cybersecurity programs, says they’ll be delivered in a summer workshop format that will then be embedded into the curriculum.
“Cybersecurity is one of the most dynamic fields,” he said. “I think everyone feels like they are in catch-up mode.”
Fairfield first introduced cybersecurity courses in 2015, and launched its master’s degree in the field three years ago. Speretta says many graduate students are taking the course part-time alongside their careers.
The School of Engineering last year launched a Security Operations Center, which serves a dual purpose. It helps monitor the university’s own network against cyberattacks, and provides a real-time training environment for undergraduate students.
Offense and defense
“Our curriculum is highly dynamic,” says Vahid Behzadan at the University of New Haven. Active academic research, he says, “is one of the ways we keep our curriculum and our body of knowledge alive.”
In addition to his teaching position, Behzadan is also the director of a research lab at UNH called Secure and Assured Intelligent Learning (SAIL).
“My research team, Ph.D. students and graduate students work on problems at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity,” he said.
He says while networks and operating systems tend to retain the same types of features over time, what is changing fastest about the field is the level of interconnectivity — including the Internet of Things and our reliance on cloud services — introducing many more vulnerability points.
He urges his students to think both offensively and defensively about cybersecurity.
“The defender needs to make sure that every possible entry point, every possible vulnerability is patched, and everything on the network is being monitored proactively,” he explained. “On the offensive side, the adversary needs to find one open door, one vulnerability to compromise the system.”
His department offers a course in ethical hacking, and the university fields an active and successful hacking team that competes against other institutions.
Behzadan and others point to artificial intelligence as the next big frontier in cybersecurity.
“We must adapt our program to address all these evolving challenges every day,” says Robin Chataut, an assistant professor of cybersecurity and computer science at Quinnipiac University. “To stay current with the threat intelligence, we meet every year to revise our course content.”
While AI-enabled threat detection presents a significant opportunity, artificial intelligence is also available to bad actors in the cyber world.
“It’s being used to develop smart malwares to launch the zero-day attacks to bypass the latest security protocols that we have,” he said. “To prepare our students for the future, every program must incorporate AI and automation.”
Chataut points to faculty expertise as another challenge in such a fast-changing field.
“Finding and retaining those qualified faculty members who can teach the most up-to-date materials is kind of difficult for us, because there is high demand for these skilled professionals in the cyber industry,” he said.
It’s a challenge they solve through the use of adjunct faculty, blending their professional experience with teaching.
The arms-race nature of cybersecurity education might seem daunting, but Fitzgerald, the UConn School of Business professor, offers a hopeful note for students entering the field.
“The vulnerability you’re going to be worried about is not available yet. The problem you’re going to solve is going to take a different form,” he said. “But if you know the basics, if you know the core tenets of security, then you’re going to be equipped to deal with whatever it happens to be.”
