AKRON, Ohio — Northeast Ohio is joining the front lines of cybersecurity, as work begins on a new training site for computer professionals at the University of Akron.
The future Ohio Cyber Range site sits on the fourth floor of the Polsky Building on the University of Akron campus. While construction just began, the university expects it will be completed and ready to go for training early this fall.
The Cyber Range is the second site of its kind in Ohio, joining a site that opened last year at the University of Cincinnati.
"What’s happening in cyberspace is persistent,” said Major General John Harris, Ohio’s Adjutant General. “It is not a one-time attack and then our adversaries, those bad actors, go away. They’re constantly probing systems. They’re constantly evaluating systems, looking for vulnerabilities and we have to have a persistent response to that.”
That’s part of why the state and cybersecurity professionals are taking cybersecurity so seriously. The new Cyber Range in Akron will allow cybersecurity professionals to train and practice on real-world scenarios “without having any effect on the actual cyber system,” Harris said.
The University of Akron, Harris said, plays a role in “developing the workforce of the future.” The university offers classes in cybersecurity and digital forensics under its computer information systems major. Both programs are relatively new, but they’re in high demand. The university said its had five graduates so far in its digital forensics option, which started in 2015, and it anticipates the first graduates from its cybersecurity option in 2021.
Harris noted that many cybersecurity professionals trained by the military eventually leave to take higher-paying jobs in other industries. He said he hopes students and other professionals will become part of a “Cyber Reserve.”
Right now, the idea of the Cyber Reserve is still a bill at the Ohio Statehouse. The Cyber Reserve would be a civilian corps, nested under the Ohio National Guard, that would train to prevent attacks and also respond when attacks take place.
“We know that there’s going to be a huge gap in the cyber workforce,” Harris said. “So the cyber professionals that are being trained here today, they’re not only the ones who are going to make a difference out there in the industry, in government, in our economic system. But also they will be the ones hopefully who join the Cyber Reserve, and in the event of an attack, we can organize them under the Adjutant General’s department to help us respond and mitigate the effects of an attack.”
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose joined Maj. Gen. Harris Tuesday at the University of Akron to visit a cybersecurity class and to tour the space where the Cyber Range site will be constructed.
“Our focus [at the Secretary of State’s office] is on maintaining secure systems for our elections. That’s working with our 88 county boards of elections, but it goes so much further than that,” LaRose said. “Critical infrastructure, city government, county government.”
He noted that the Cyber Reserve would be available to help out anywhere its members’ help is requested.
"The threat exists against a two-person office in a small rural county or a 200-person office in a big urban county,” LaRose said.
