Page 53 - BusinessWest November 28, 2022

facility, including all human-resources functions for employees and hiring of key personnel, plus the establishment of electronic-systems management. The facility will also be overseen by a steering committee of public, private, and academic stakeholders, which will include the Springfield Redevelopment Authority, the owner of Union Station.
Dollars and Data
The Union Station project is just one component of a more than $3.7 million outlay to bolster cybersecurity resilience — and the related workforce — across the state. The announce- ments were made during the sixth
Massachusetts Cybersecurity Forum
at Bridgewater State University, which brought together 100 executives from companies, municipalities, and leading universities.
The awards included a $1,086,476 grant to support the launch of Cyber- Trust Massachusetts, a new nonprofit that will work with business and aca- demia statewide to grow the cyber- security talent pipeline by increasing career pathways for underrepresented groups, and promote security opera- tions to address the day-to-day needs of resource-constrained municipalities, nonprofits, and small businesses.
The Commonwealth also
announced the $1,462,995 award to STCC and $1,200,000 to Bridgewater State University to establish SOCs and cyber ranges in the two cities.
“We’re seeking to establish Massa- chusetts as the national leader when
it comes to cybersecurity infrastruc- ture,” Gov. Charlie Baker said during the announcement event, adding that “we’re bringing together leading aca- demic partners and businesses to sup- port cyber resiliency and workforce development in the Commonwealth.”
CyberTrust Massachusetts was launched to address four key impera- tives for the state:
• Undersecurity, as organizations
across Massachusetts, especially municipalities, small businesses, and nonprofits, are challenged to find affordable resources to defend them- selves against growing cybersecurity threats and maintain cyber resiliency;
• Underemployment, highlighted by the aforementioned 20,000 cyberse- curity job openings in Massachusetts, and the fact that communities of color and women are underrepresented in the cybersecurity workforce and are frequently overlooked for employment due to a lack of opportunity to obtain hands-on cybersecurity experience;
• Employee training, as businesses across the Commonwealth typically do not have a location to send their employees to receive cybersecurity training at an affordable rate; and
• Business and economic develop- ment, specifically a need to convene regional hubs for business develop- ment where cybersecurity entrepre- neurs can establish and grow startups or where specific industry segments such as defense contractors can receive specialized support.
“No organization is successful 100% of the time when it comes to defending against cyberattacks.
With the new monitoring capabilities, organizations can increase awareness, detect intrusions faster, and respond more quickly to an incident.”
“This first-of-its-kind collabora- tion among business, higher ed, and government through CyberTrust Mas- sachusetts could transform our cyber education and training, growing our workforce and creating new opportuni- ties statewide while helping to make our communities more cyber resilient,” said Pete Sherlock, CEO of CyberTrust Massachusetts.
In February 2022, the MassCyber- Center released a request for responses seeking interest from entities interested in establishing an SOC and/or cyber range to support the dual missions around cybersecurity workforce devel- opment and for protection against cyber threats. Seven expressions of interest were received, including the proposals from STCC and Bridgewater State.
“We see these as the initial invest- ments in a cyber-secure future, impor- tant investments to build out our plan
Cyber
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