College develops “battle lab” for growing cyber security base
Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown came under attack at Capitol College last month. His computer was deliberately infected with a program that slowed down all of his systems to a point where the laptop was nothing more than an expensive paper weight.

But thanks to a grant aimed at readying the state’s workforce for high tech jobs coming via military base expansion, Capitol College students were able to use a new cyber security laboratory to thwart the virus – which they themselves uploaded to Brown’s laptop.

“Cyber security is a huge industry in Maryland, between the federal government and the contracting base – and this fits very nicely into that industry,” said Dr. Vic Maconachy, vice president of academic affairs at Capitol College. “It’s a nice facility that’s available to educate and train a growing cyber security workforce.”

The Cyber Battle Lab is the result of a $93,000 grant issued by Brown’s office, one of nearly two dozen grants to prepare college students for jobs coming to the military bases through Base Realignment and Closure.

The lab provides a hands-on approach to cyber security by allowing students to run drills against coding attacks and practice generating more secure codes for computer systems, Maconachy said. The new program is aimed at helping computer science majors learn cyber security techniques that BRAC jobs will require.

“This program will ensure that we have a capable, trained and skilled workforce pipeline to fill today’s jobs, as well as tomorrow’s,” Brown said in a statement.

The lab isn’t just for computer science majors or cyber security. Maconachy said business majors can use the lab to gauge the cost of an effective cyber security system, as many businesses are now on networks that need constant maintenance and protection, officials said.

Cyber Command gets new chief
New educational opportunities in cyber security will likely benefit future and current employees of the newly-formed U.S. Cyber Command, which now has an official leader in Gen. Keith Alexander.

Alexander, who is the director of the National Security Agency, will lead up the new cybersecurity wing of the Department of Defense. He was confirmed in early May by the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.

The confirmation of Alexander make the agency’s location at Fort Meade, which is home to the NSA and the military’s intelligence brigades, and, thanks to BRAC, will be the home of the Defense Information Systems Agency, the defense department’s information technology wing.

Cyber Command’s objective will be to protect the military’s computer infrastructure from attacks. The command will combine existing agencies with a few new jobs, totaling to just below 2,000. But state officials are expecting thousands more contractors to relocate and work with this new agency.

-By Jason Flanagan
-June 2010 Print Edition