MassBay Takes Lead on Cybersecurity
“The prevalence of cybercrime is growing at a staggering rate and producing the skilled workers to fortify cybersecurity in all industries is our best defense,” says MassBay President David Podell. “We have the faculty, the curriculum, and the equipment necessary to answer the call from the White House and to improve our cyber defenses. At MassBay, we will remain a regional solution to this national threat by relying on our outstanding faculty and first-of-its- kind curriculum to feed this growing workforce need.”
On July 31, 2023, the White House released the National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy (NCWES), which “envisions a skills-based digital future where workers have access to good-paying, middle- class cyber jobs within their communities.” NCWES points directly to MassBay’s cybersecurity plans as one of the programs that will help to fill “the hundreds of thousands of cyber job vacancies across our nation.” Here in Massachusetts, estimates show there are 20,000 unfilled jobs in cybersecurity due to a lack of a trained workforce.
The prevalence of cyberattacks has moved the Biden White House to act, and they’re relying on MassBay to play a key role.
47% of American adults have had their personal information exposed
Cyber Beginnings at MassBay It was during her sabbatical in 2012 that Shamsi Moussavi, MassBay’s Director of the Center for Cybersecurity Education and Professor of Computer Science and Cybersecurity, began to research the elements of a cybersecurity certificate program. That program was approved in 2013 and was supplemented by an advanced cybersecurity certificate program in 2015. Credits earned in both of those programs can be “stacked” to be used as part of MassBay associate degree in cybersecurity — the only such program in Massachusetts approved by the Department of Higher Education.
600,000 Facebook accounts have been hacked
65% of Americans have received at least one online scam offer
The Future of Cybersecurity Education at MassBay
consortium of colleges, high school students, and employees from businesses, municipalities, school systems, and non-profit organizations from the Greater Boston region. Future plans include creating a Security Operations Center and a facility to house the MassBay Cybersecurity Education Center. “We have built an exceptional cybersecurity program here at MassBay, and we are eager to grow it even further,” says President Podell. “At a time when the White House has said filling cyber jobs is now a ‘national security imperative,’ we are poised to make a difference. Our goal is to be the Greater Boston and MetroWest leader in cybersecurity training and workforce development, producing highly qualified and well-trained workers to do the important work of protecting our data. And we’re well on our way.”
MassBay currently educates 100 students in its three cybersecurity programs. The College is investing in its cybersecurity programs with plans to add faculty members and grow enrollment by 40 additional students per semester. Plans to further strengthen the cybersecurity program include the recently launched cyber range, only the third of its kind in Massachusetts. A cyber range is a simulated environment in which students learn the latest cyberattack techniques and are trained in how to combat them.
1 in 3 homes with computers are infected with malicious software
*Source: United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
“The vision was to provide an initial certificate program, layer in an advanced program, and ultimately offer the first associate degree in cybersecurity in Massachusetts. Now we produce well-trained graduates who have the necessary level of knowledge and experience to fill the wide range of cyber jobs the Massachusetts economy needs. I am proud to say our cybersecurity degree program was and still is the best among the Massachusetts community colleges.” - Shamsi Moussavi, Director of the Center for Cybersecurity Education and Professor of Computer Science and Cybersecurity
In addition, MassBay will extend its resources to strengthen cybersecurity skills for students from a
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker