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Cybersecurity Industry Demand
Training leverages award-winning platform and instructors’ expertise
By Nora Zelluk
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What started out as a winning University of Delaware Hen Hatch entrepreneurship project by three recent UD undergraduates has become an integral part of a new cybersecurity training program offered through UD’s Division of Professional and Continuing Studies (UD PCS).
UD alumni Jason “J” Reynolds, Casey Rock and Dylan Martin initially created their virtual network simulation platform as a research project. “As students in a computer engineering or cybersecurity curriculum, we mostly were learning concepts,” said Rock. “At the time, there really weren’t extensive opportunities to face a realistic virtual network to practice what we were learning.”
Working together, they created a cloudbased environment that simulates real computer networks for use in cybersecurity training and hacking practice activities.
Launched earlier this year, Cybersecurity Fundamentals for Practitioners and Managers was the first in a two-course series developed and taught by Reynolds, Rock and Martin to provide an introduc-
tion to key cybersecurity concepts and terminology. The follow-up Advanced Cybersecurity Defense Certificate is being offered this fall and features extensive hands-on practice in their cybersecurity training platform.
After undergraduate careers encompassing multiple cybersecurity initiatives and activities while still at UD, the three alums are now all full-time computer scientists or software engineers working as cybersecurity specialists in the defense industry or government agencies.
It was on the industry side of their experiences where they saw firsthand the dramatically increasing demand for professionals with cybersecurity skills at all levels.
“Cybersecurity risks, threats and challenges are increasing every day. The number of devices on the internet increases every day, with new technologies and new platforms, especially since the explosion of telehealth, telework and remote business during the pandemic,” explained Rock. “Coming from a football background, I always say it’s like playing defense against a hundred offenses,” he added.
As a result, the industry holds opportunities at all levels, and not just at the advanced level of programmers and software engineers with specialized degrees.
“There are so many avenues you can go with cybersecurity,” said Rock. “Of course there are many roles that are very technical and engineering-based, but there are also significant roles involved in compliance, risk evaluation, policy, management, policies and procedures, detection and testing.”
The three instructors came to realize that along with their knowledge, education and experience in the industry, they had an opportunity to create a course around their virtual training platform that could provide opportunities for career changers, or anyone who wanted to add this timely skillset and knowledge to their resume.
“With our practice platform, we realized we had a critical hands-on component that would allow us to create a unique advantage for our teaching, with a fun and realistic way to learn skills to defeat hackers,” said Rock.
