Cyber Security: Cyber First Responder Program

Alamo Community College District - St. Philip'S College, San Antonio TX

Investigators

Abstract

St. Philip's College (SPC), a public, two-year Historically Black College and Hispanic Serving Institution in San Antonio, Texas, launched a new Cyber Security: Cyber First Responder Program with funding support from the National Science Foundation. The project's goal is to educate and prepare cyber first responders to increase the number of professionals in the information assurance and cyber security workforce who are highly trained to prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from cyber security incidents impacting one or more organizations. The project's activities include professional development for SPC college faculty and area K-12 educators, creation of a certificate program for emergency operations personnel, development of curriculum leading to an Associate of Applied Science degree in Cyber First Response, formation of collaborative agreements with 4-year institutions to provide transitions to 4-year programs to complete a Bachelor or higher degree, development of a secondary school component for middle and high school students as well as the creation of a cyber-learning laboratory at SPC. This project is producing a skilled group of cyber first responders capable of implementing basic cyber security prevention measures, collaboratively identifying intrusive activity when it occurs using research-based best practices to respond to incidents from an organizational viewpoint, and implementing innovative approaches to resolve incidents that impact more than a single organization. As a result, this project is leading to the development of a model cyber first responder program that may be replicated at other institutions. Additionally, it creates and optimizes a regional network of productive cyber first responder partnerships between academia, businesses, and industries in South Texas and the nation.