CyberMontana: Digital Defender
UM Program Trains Students to Protect Against Online Threats
By Erika Fredrickson
To those of us outside the cybersecurity world, Dianne Burke’s background sounds a bit like something out of a John Grisham novel. As a forensic analyst, she has spent part of her career digging through hard drives and searching networks for evidence on behalf of attorneys in major court cases across Montana and, occasionally, out of state. And she’s not going to lie: It was an interesting job.
“It’s like this big puzzle,” she says. “You poke around all over the computer, and you find a thread here and a thread there, and you just keep pulling those until you find what you’re looking for — or until you can definitively say it’s not there.”
Now the director of UM’s CyberMontana and faculty member at Missoula College, Burke and her eight-person team are helping to elevate cybersecurity education in Montana through four initiatives that cover a wide-range of learners, from K-12 kids to college students to workers in private and public sectors.
CyberMontana is a state hub funded in 2021 by the Legislature through the American Rescue Plan Act. The hub is both a response to a rise in cybersecurity threats across the world and to a higher demand for cybersecurity workers. There is a global shortage of nearly 3 million cybersecurity workers and a national shortage of 400,000. It’s also a way to harness in-state resources and partners, including Missoula College, which has been designated by the National Security Association as a Center of Academic Excellence, and where cybersecurity education is a natural fit.
One initiative is a young learners program that looks to increase the pipeline through K-12 summer STEM camps. The summer camps feature hands-on activities to investigate cryptography, password cracking and geotagging, among other topics. Burke says it’s particularly important to focus on girls under the age of 13 or 14, when they still are engaged with and confident in science and math skills. Getting them interested early would add to the pool of prospects down the line.
“If we can get them interested, then we’ve got a whole other gender that we can add,” Burke says. “Cybersecurity is mostly older white guys. With summer STEM camps, we get an equal number of girls participating.”
For juniors and seniors in high school, the young learners initiative offers dual enrollment into early college cybersecurity courses and results in a Certificate of Technical Studies in cybersecurity from Missoula College.
A second initiative offers adults a one-year certificate of Applied Science in Computer Support or a two-year Associate of Applied Science degree in IT and Network Security, as well as a CTS in Cloud Computing and Cyber Security. Those who need a shorter timeframe can take the Cyber Rapid Training program, which prepares students for entry-level positions.
The third initiative is workforce development training for workers already in the cybersecurity field. These are modules, courses, hands-on labs and assessments in topics like intrusion detection and digital forensics, as well as multiple certification options such as “certified ethical hacker.”
And the fourth initiative is security awareness training for businesses and their employees in which they learn to spot phishing emails, consider password protections and other security issues.
On the horizon, Burke says, CyberMontana is creating a website called Cyber 406 that will serve as a kind of one-stop shop for the state’s cybersecurity resources.
All these initiatives are an attempt to make a broad range of people fluent in cybersecurity. After all, Burke notes, it’s not just people in tech who need to know this stuff. There are half a million Montanans in the workforce, and at least 95% of those workers use computers for their jobs.
“They are the front line of defense in terms of cybersecurity,” she says.
Cyber threats have evolved from targeting businesses to being nearly indiscriminate. More devices at our reach come with more potential entryways for those threats. In her cybersecurity classes, Burke discusses “the internet of things” to show how vulnerable we all are to attacks. A case study in England connected a simulated smart home to the internet. It received 12,000 attacks in one week and suffered a breach.
“And so that’s one of the things that we try and impress upon students is to think about the data that you have,” Burke days. “Think about the way that it could be compromised. Think about how it can be turned around and used against you. It’s not just large profile targets. Anybody can be the subject of this.”
Missoula College students get a chance to engage with cybersecurity education in other ways, too. Montana Cyber Range is a virtual resource that allows participants to practice defending against cyber threats by way of lab exercises, simulations and competitions. On campus, the Cyber Gym hosts events where people from across the state come to engage in competitions.
And, finally, the Strategic Operation Center is a configuration that allows real-time monitoring of real-life computers. SOC is just getting started, but Burke says the plan is to expand it so that, with supervision, students will help monitor government and private industry security across the state.
UM’s Information Technology services offers another obvious partner to the cybersecurity programs. Zach Rossmiller, chief information officer at UM for CyberMontana, says students working toward degrees or certificates have the opportunity to get job experience on campus at the help desk or in other IT areas.
While UM can’t compete with high-paying IT salaries off campus, Rossmiller says what they do provide students are valuable skills they can’t easily obtain elsewhere. Fellowships, internships and hands-on work bolster confidence and provide experience that will make their resumes rise to the top.
“Then when they graduate, they can basically write their own salary and get placed in a highly compensated position,” he says. “My dream is that CyberMontana can help us pull in students from not just UM but from anywhere across Montana.”
That includes tribal colleges, he says, for students who can gain strong IT and cybersecurity experience and bring those skills back to their communities.
Collaborators also are a major component to CyberMontana. Jason Emery started working for Missoula County 10 years ago, and as chief information officer has developed the cybersecurity program there.
“I came from banking prior to this, so it was kind of beat into us that we do cybersecurity,” he says. “We didn’t really have a choice. And I think now the county is to the point where we’re really a leader when it comes to cybersecurity in the public sector.”
Emery helped develop Missoula College’s long-term degree and continuing education. He says it’s highly beneficial for the county to have access to certification for employees interested in upskilling, as well as a pipeline of students and access to the college’s resources.
“I think there was a misunderstanding in years past of, ‘Who cares about a little medium-sized county in Western Montana? We’re not a target,’” Emery says. “But that’s completely untrue.”
Keeping up with “bad actors” who are constantly evolving their tactics requires cutting-edge education — and not just the standard Google certification. Leveraging higher education skillsets and local programs help fill in the gaps.
“We hope to continue to have collaboration with the University in evolving that program,” he says. “I think using that to continually develop our pool of applicants and trying to develop our own workforce is going to be extremely valuable for the foreseeable future.”
Sam Wolf, who went through Missoula College’s technical certification program for cybersecurity last summer, is now a cybersecurity engineer working with Emery for Missoula County. She already had some background in cybersecurity when she started the 12-week program, but it helped provide context to do her job better.
“It was a great opportunity for me to fill my knowledge gaps and see what it is that I don’t know and what I need to learn more about,” she says. “I knew how to protect the house, but I didn’t really know how the house was built — and that is what this accelerated program offered.”
Wolf says an overall lesson she took from taking the accelerated course was that a cybersecurity career might seem out of reach, but often it isn’t.
“Talent acquisition and retention is obviously a big issue, and speaking as someone who’s relatively new to the field, I imagine a lot of people see a job like ‘computer specialist’ at the county, and their first thought might be, ‘I’m not qualified for that,’” Wolf says. “And that’s where I think programs like what CyberMontana offers can come in, because people are getting not only the skills, but also more confidence within this field.” •
