If you’ve noticed the increased construction work in Cremer Hall, then you’ve seen the beginnings of Emporia State’s investments in its cybersecurity programs. However, the bulk of this work required for the program to thrive is occurring behind the scenes.
“We saw an opportunity and we asked our alumni ‘What do we need for our students to be hired?’ and they said ‘Well we really need more cybersecurity,”’ said Director of the Cybersecurity Center Leticia Rust.
Cybersecurity is a fast-growing field with a large shortage of labor that Emporia State is hoping to help fill; globally, 3.4 million cybersecurity professionals are required to meet workforce demand. ESU intends to use a $1.5 million dollar grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and $1.1 million dollars earmarked for the new cybersecurity program in the Kansas state budget to help prepare cybersecurity professionals for the job market.
“Senator Moran was really the one who got on board with this idea,” said Dr. Ed Bashaw, Dean of the School of Business & Technology. “It was a leap of faith, he wanted it to be something that outlasted a few years. Computer science is a growing field: what you’ll see in the next few years is that programs are evolving. In 3-5 years, there will probably be a standalone degree.”
ESU isn’t just hoping to grow a strong cybersecurity program but is also trying to raise awareness on the importance of cybersecurity in small and rural towns.
“Something we don’t think about with cybersecurity: what about agriculture? Farmers use technology for seeds and planting and that’s a vulnerability,” Rust said.
ESU is hosting Cybercon 2023 at 9 a.m. on Oct. 4 in Webb Hall to raise awareness of the importance of cybersecurity and the new program. The School of Business and Technology is counting on these efforts to increase the number of internships cybersecurity students at ESUcan find during their time in the program. However, that isn’t the only path to a job that the school is banking on.
Once the cybersecurity center and program are up-and-running, the school intends on becoming a National Center of Academic Excellence certified school by the National Security Agency. This certification requires that ESU’s program demonstrates community involvement, has academic activities and institutional practices in the cybersecurity field, and has valid programs of cybersecurity study. At that point, the university will be eligible to give students nationally competitive internships with government agencies which, at the end of the internship, guarantee the student a job upon graduation.
Emporia State’s Cybersecurity Center is slated to open in January of 2024.
