Page 52 - BusinessWest November 28, 2022

ate the Union Station facility in partnership with a consortia of area higher-education institutions, including Bay Path University, UMass Amherst, Western New England University, Elms College, and Springfield College, each of which bring a range of undergraduate certificate and degree programs in IT/security, cybersecurity, computer science and programming, digital forensics, and criminal justice.
“We’re seeking to establish Massachusetts as the national leader when it comes to cybersecurity infrastructure. We’re bringing together leading academic partners and businesses to support cyber resiliency and workforce development in the Commonwealth.”
The SOC, Kaselouskas explained, is “a physical location at Union Station that monitors, detects, and responds to cyber threats 24/7/365, pro- tecting organizations’ assets. A lot of companies don’t have the resources for a fully operational SOC, or can even afford to have managed SOC operations.”
The center will have full-time employees but
also offer training oppor- tunities for students at area colleges by way of internships and work- study programs, she added. “This will oper- ate as a business once the grant money is gone. We haven’t discussed fees, but we will have
an employee working in business outreach to get customers on board that will utilize the facility.”
Meanwhile, the cyber range will allow both students and employ- ees of companies and municipalities to experi- ence simulated threats
in a virtual environment, with hands-on training in live-fire attacks, blue- team/red-team events (in which one team attacks
STCC President John Cook says the cyber project at Union Station will be transformative for the region and higher education.
a system and the other
defends it), and other training models, poten- tially leading to certification in security fields for students.
“That’s the training part of this,” Kaselous- kas told BusinessWest, noting that area colleges and universities will incorporate the cyber-range software into courses. “If a student is enrolled
at STCC in the cybersecurity program, they may take a few courses that use the cyber range — so it’s not a whole course, but a component of a course.”
The grant to STCC will cover renovation and construction of the Union Station space, which
is estimated to open in the first half of 2024. The facility will include a classroom and a conference room for up to 60 people, able to accommodate those cyber-related events and to serve as a space for collaboration, in addition to separate class- room space, workstations for use by academic partners, offices for facility staff, a tech-support area, a kitchen, and storage.
As part of a site-based service arrangement, STCC will provide administrative oversight for the
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