Champlain Cybersecurity experts talking

Champlain cybersecurity experts Adam Goldstein and Ryan Gillen recently penned an article in Police1, highlighting Champlain’s new cybersecurity training for law enforcement professionals, and the integral role students and faculty play in this hands-on research project.

In Fall 2023, we announced some big news: The United States Secret Service (USSS) and the National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI) awarded a $3.4M Cyber Range Contract to Champlain College. Through Champlain’s Leahy Center for Digital Forensics & Cybersecurity, students and faculty will work to maintain, manage, and utilize its cyber range and curriculum to train law enforcement across the nation in realistic, hands-on digital forensics and cyber crime prevention.

Adam Goldstein, assistant professor in Champlain’s Division of Information Technology & Sciences and academic director of the Leahy Center, and Ryan Gillen, manager of the Leahy Center, teamed up to further explain how this project will simultaneously give students impeccable professional experience and help educate the law enforcement industry how to ward off cyber attacks.

a group of people getting a tour of the leahy center
Ryan Gillen, left, gives a tour of the Leahy Center to families, alumni, and current students during Champlain Weekend.

“While training on the cyber range, law enforcement will focus on the increasing threat of malware and ransomware attacks on businesses,” they write in the Police1 article. “Champlain College faculty and students will use modern tools, techniques and procedures to simulate threat actors compromising networks and executing cyber attacks. Through these simulations, law enforcement personnel will focus on several key aspects: understanding cybercrime, investigation techniques, response strategies and cybersecurity defense.”

The virtual interactive training environment will utilize Champlain’s cyber range to simulate cybersecurity incidents and teach law enforcement professionals what to do and what to look out for.

Students will consistently complete research to stay on top of current and evolving cybersecurity trends to reflect in the new curriculum, ensuring the cutting-edge program prepares its trainees to tackle the most pressing cybersecurity issues to date.

Want to develop your own cybersecurity skills with hands-on experience that leaves you with an impressive, career-ready resume upon graduation? Check out our on-campus undergraduate Computer Networking & Cybersecurity and Computer & Digital Forensics majors. Explore our online master’s, bachelor’s, and certificate programs here.

Kaylee Sullivan

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