The University of Alabama in Huntsville opened its Cybersecurity Lab last Friday, just in time for the start of the Fall 2021 semester.
“The Cybersecurity Lab will leverage the specialized cybersecurity programs in the College of Business to educate students and train-up well-rounded professionals with the knowledge and expertise needed to secure and defend businesses and organizations against cybersecurity threats,” said Dr. Jason Greene, dean of UAH’s College of Business.
The lab will have three main functions:
- Virtual Cyber Teaching and Research will provide students with access to cloud-hosted tools and environments featuring countless virtual machines and network configurations.
- Collaborative Teaching will facilitate student-focused, collaborative, hands-on learning that promotes team-based problem solving and analysis in identifying cyber threats, securing networks, complying with cyber standards and responding to cyber-related events.
- Digital Forensics will include workstations, imagers and other physical and virtual forensic tools to give students hands-on experience in detecting, investigating and analyzing cyber breaches.
In addition, the lab will be used as a venue for team-based cyber events, such as hackathons and competitions, facilitation community engagement through outreach events, workshops and seminars.
The goal is to help build a capable cyber workforce that has experience in a wide range of technical expertise, including cyber intelligence, incident response, evidence collection, risk mitigation, organizational recovery and response and more.
“Our graduate programs — our master’s in information systems and our master’s in cybersecurity —will utilize the Cybersecurity Lab to give our students, who are primarily working professionals, an advantage in both the knowledge and skills that help them lead their organizations with the security information and operations,” said Greene.
