According to the White House’s Workforce and Education Strategy, employer demands for cybersecurity workers exceed supplies by 32%. In the Carolinas, there are more than 27,000 cybersecurity job openings, which is much higher than the number of graduates with the skills necessary to fill positions.
Integrated Information Technology (IIT) Professor Jorge Crichigno is leading a three-year, $650,000 National Science Foundation-funded project to help prepare a cybersecurity workforce. Co-principal investigators include John Gerdes, Elie Kfoury, and Anthony Dillon from the Department of IIT and Electrical Engineering Assistant Professor Kristen Booth. The project is in partnership with Stanly Community College in North Carolina.
Due to the rise of IT systems and virtual activities, the security of operational technology (OT) is increasingly important for national security. OT refers to hardware and software systems used to directly monitor, control and manage physical devices and process in industrial environments.
“Most of the time we talk about IT cybersecurity, which is for a home or campus network, or data center,” Crichigno says. “But it’s becoming important and critical to secure other systems, such as water treatment plants, which are connected to the Internet but were not designed with security in mind.”
The collaborative project aims to enable the convergence of public, private and education sectors with IT and OT cybersecurity to create a Cybersecurity Convergence (Cyber-Con2) workforce.
“While many of the cybersecurity techniques, such as malware protection and remote access management, apply to both IT and OT, there is a need to secure these systems and educate students and professionals in cybersecurity,” Crichigno says. “Engineers today need a fundamental cybersecurity knowledge to identify vulnerabilities and work together with IT cybersecurity teams.”
Crichigno added that IT professionals need to understand the OT environments to effectively secure such environments, including manufacturing, energy and transportation systems.
The project aims to develop educational and training materials in the form of virtual lab libraries for OT and IT cybersecurity. These materials will be utilized by high schools, community colleges and four-year universities and be accessible through the University of South Carolina’s Academic Cloud, a system dedicated to teaching, training, and research with remote access capability to lab equipment from data centers across the country. The cloud will be modernized with new servers, smart network interface cards and next-generation firewalls. Kfoury will work on developing virtual lab libraries.
“The libraries that are developed will provide hands-on, real-world cybersecurity training in emerging OT and IT fields. Given the critical role of OT systems, training a skilled workforce to protect them is essential to safeguarding national security,” Kfoury says. “These libraries will offer access to real systems in a flexible online environment, allowing learners to gain practical experience beyond traditional lecture-based classrooms.”
The libraries will include teaching the systems, components and fundamentals of critical infrastructures. Labs can be reserved and 10-to-15 experiments per library can be conducted on technologies used to protect industrial control systems. Upon completion, students will have marketable skills and have the option to earn a stackable credential.
“This process recreates an entire training pod in less than one minute and can be connected to the Internet so students can follow the lab manual,” Crichigno says. “If someone tried to recreate this, it would take years to put all the pieces and expertise in place. But because of USC’s expertise in cybersecurity and virtualization, students and professionals from anywhere can start learning IT and OT cybersecurity immediately, by using USC’s platform and training material.”
Crichigno also plans to expand the cloud by creating more libraries with additional training materials.
“Since students will already have basic training on IT and OT cybersecurity, we have been active in expanding cyber training. The libraries and lab experiments are currently being incorporated into some classes, and not just by USC, but by other institutions,” Crichigno says.
Creating training materials and expanding the academic cloud are not the only objectives of the project. Crichigno and Dillon aspire to create a multi-state summer internship program in the Carolinas to give students the opportunity to work as many as 400 hours at national laboratories, private businesses and agencies.
“Savannah River National Laboratory is an example of an agency searching for cybersecurity graduates who can help the lab advance its mission,” Dillon says. “This is a great opportunity for USC students to contribute with securing the nation while staying in South Carolina with an advancement in their career pathway.”
“By delivering both formal and informal training across high schools, colleges and universities - and leveraging support from national organizations - the project will create a strong pipeline of job-ready professionals to meet the increasing cybersecurity workforce needs in the Carolinas and the U.S.,” Kfoury says.
Advanced formal and informal self-training in IT and OT cybersecurity is another goal. This includes an engagement with the Berkeley National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, who both have an interest in IT and OT cybersecurity and may incorporate Crichigno’s materials into their trainings.
“It’s great that we're tackling an area where not much work has been done previously. Expertise from multiple disciplines is the key to prevent cyberattacks,” Crichigno says. “We’re learning more about the world of OT systems, but it’s not our expertise. And since OT professionals may not have expertise on cyber security, we can help close the gap.”