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Emporia State Preps Grand Opening for Cybersecurity Center

Emporia State University's Cybersecurity Research and Outreach Center will include a new lab environment that's disconnected from the on-campus Internet to allow for penetration testing and other exercises.

Emporia State University.jpg
Credit: Emporia State University Facebook page
(TNS) — Emporia State University will be celebrating the grand opening of its new Cybersecurity Research and Outreach Center on Friday.

United States Senator Jerry Moran, ESU CyROC Director Leticia Rust and ESU Business and Technology Dean Ed Bashaw will offer remarks at the event, set for Friday, Jan. 19 at 2 p.m. on the fifth floor in Cremer Hall.

The Cybersecurity Research and Outreach Center at Emporia State is the first in Kansas.

Moran played a large part in opening the new center at ESU, thanks to an initial $1.5 million in funding from the 2022 appropriation bill for the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

In October, Rust told The Gazette the new cybersecurity center will offer ESU students a range of opportunities in a wide field.

"With our change in curriculum we are also going to have a new lab environment which is going to be completely offline from our on-campus Internet, so we can do some penetration testing, we can do some hands-on ethical hacking, within our lab which is going to be great," Rust said.

Rust said cybersecurity will do nothing but grow across the nation, to fill the 600,000 job deficit in the field.

"It's a great thing to have students who are willing to come and listen about cybersecurity," Rust said. "A lot of people are worried about cybersecurity because it's such a taboo topic. But what cybersecurity really is is 20 percent technology and 80 percent interaction. For students to be able to understand that and know that they have a place in cybersecurity because it's a huge umbrella of jobs."

For more information on ESU's CYROC programs, call 620-341-5106 or email cyroc@emporia.edu.

©2024 The Emporia Gazette. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.