Match up

This battlefield is not a jungle or desert. Rather, it’s a sophisticated office space — tucked inside Reynolds Hall, home of the Chambers College of Business and Economics — equipped with workstations, servers, computers and secure networks.

At war are West Virginia University students, engaged in Red Team vs. Blue Team.

In the cybersecurity world, red teams play offense and attempt to attack and break into systems in a live simulation. Blue teams play defense, guarding the network against the opposition’s attacks and threats.

It’s the sort of experiential learning that’s prepping the next generation of cybersecurity gurus. And the workforce desperately needs them. Globally, four million cybersecurity roles were left unfilled in 2023, according to a study by ISC2, the world’s largest association for cybersecurity professionals.

Across WVU, colleges are staying ahead of the curve in a field that’s changing by the second with the latest phishing emails or data breaches.

Chris Ramezan, assistant professor of cybersecurity in the Chambers College, oversees the Dr. Randy and Karen S. Evans Cybersecurity Lab, where Red Team vs. Blue Team exercises take place.  

“The best way to understand how to secure a system is to first learn how to break a system,” Ramezan said. “A main purpose of our lab is to provide a space to work on the most nascent cybersecurity threats affecting modern businesses. We’re tackling these problems in multiple ways, such as through research with both graduate and undergraduate students and allowing them to work with real businesses to address their cybersecurity issues.”

Assisting Ramezan in the lab, named for Karen Evans, a WVU alumna and cybersecurity expert who’s served under two presidential administrations, is Frank Hatten, who was not long ago a student in the program himself.

Hatten joined the Chambers College as a cybersecurity analyst and adjunct professor in 2022 as he was wrapping up his master’s degree in business cybersecurity management.

“I saw it as a perfect opportunity to give back to the state and the University,” he said. “I love seeing the students’ faces light up whether they’re at the keyboard figuring something out or physically running cables through a wall.”

Students have worked with several businesses both in and out of the state to solve real-life cybersecurity and technology issues. For instance, Bloom, an art shop in Thomas, West Virginia, had troubles with its network and Wi-Fi coverage due to its building’s thick brick walls. Chambers College management information systems and business cybersecurity students assessed, measured and mapped out the building before they developed a whole new network architecture that’s now up and running and easily accessible.

“Students used software to insert building blueprints and measurements to map out where wireless access points should be for optimal wireless coverage,” Hatten said. 

Other businesses receive simple tips and tricks from students to keep their networks secure.

“One business stored all the passwords underneath a keyboard at the front register,” Hatten said. “That’s a big no-no, right? But we find that happens a lot. 

“We’ve helped other businesses with their firewalls, analyzing potential security breaches and malware, and better understanding the traffic that flows through their networks.”

Students have even worked with national entities such as the U.S. Department of Defense, the MITRE Corporation and Leidos. Kennedy Hawkins, a business cybersecurity management master’s student, said the Evans Lab has benefited him by helping him to land an internship at the Civil-Military Innovation Institute, a nonprofit that bridges gaps in defense innovation to support military units and service members.

“I work in a lab very similar to the Evans Lab at Chambers,” said Hawkins, of West Grove, Pennsylvania. “We work with real-world tools to provide training, innovation and research to the Army National Guard and other government entities. The cybersecurity programs at WVU have prepared me for the future by integrating practical, real-world examples into our training.”

Teaming up

Since 2006, WVU has held the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security’s designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in both cyber defense education and cyber defense research. The Evans Lab serves as WVU’s lead training ground for preparing students for Operation Locked Shields, an international exercise run by NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia. In this live-fire exercise, students enhance their skills in defending national IT systems and critical infrastructure. During these events, students get to work with some of the nation’s top cybersecurity experts.

Ramezan’s work led him to being named the academic lead of the 2024 NATO Locked Shields exercise by the chief of staff of the Joint Force Headquarters. Ramezan also helped the U.S.

national team earn a 4th place ranking in the 2020 NATO Locked Shields exercise, one of the highest rankings the team has ever received in the competition.

In addition, WVU is one of 84 educational institutions that work closely with CYBERCOM, in the U.S. Department of Defense, which also puts students through realistic simulations. Both computer science and business school majors have access to CYBERCOM’s academic partnership, including expertise from some of the country’s most eminent cybersecurity experts and prestigious civilian internship opportunities.

“Cybersecurity is the fastest growing degree program in our department,” said Anurag Srivastava, professor and chair of the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. “Engagement like the opportunity with CYBERCOM allows us to show students at least one very good application for what they are learning in classes: to help with national defense.”

As software, systems and network threats become more sophisticated and complex, it’ll take cross-college collaborations seen between the Statler and Chambers colleges to stamp out attacks.

“Our students want more choices, more electives, including the business classes at Chambers,” Srivastava said. “We usually look at the infrastructure and operational side and they look at the business and information side.”

Srivastava said students want to learn from one another. And working together elevates leadership development and teamwork skills. In one Locked Shields competition, WVU students from engineering, business, law and media worked with the West Virginia National Guard and Polish allies to defend a fictional country – and their work led the team to its highest ranking in the exercise.

Home on the range

Over at the Statler College, researchers are planning a cybersecurity range — a specialized software and hardware facility for education, training and research — with support from the U.S. Department of Education.

The facility will serve as a “sandbox,” an isolated environment on a network that emulates an operating system for the user. It can be used to run experiments safely without risk of security threats to the host device or network, preventing malicious activities from spreading.

“Everything is done in a secure and responsible way. For cybersecurity we must, even for regular classes, include hands-on experiences for students which will experiment with malware,” said Katerina Goseva-Popstojanova, a professor in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering who oversees the facility.

One part of the cyber range will be hosted on an AWS Outpost and will allow for research and teaching. An AWS Outpost is a platform from Amazon Web Services that enables users to set up a hybrid cloud by extending AWS infrastructure and tools to any data center or facility.

The range will serve as an operations center for networking internet of things devices. IoT 

devices are digital hardware items like sensors and gadgets with appliances or machines that are programmed for certain applications that transmit data via the internet or other networks. Goseva-Popstojanova said support and funding for these types of projects are crucial to the future and allow students and faculty to conduct research with the latest technology.

“There is such a great need for cybersecurity experts in many industries,” she said. “There are many unfilled positions. Students who have hands-on experience with cutting-edge hardware and software are prepared for successful careers in industry.”

Goseva-Popstojanova came to WVU in 2001 when no cybersecurity classes were offered. The first came two years later. She has since served a key role at the University in cybersecurity research and teaching. She has received $1 million from the National Science Foundation to provide annual scholarships to 40 undergraduate students for a project called “Attracting and Cultivating Cybersecurity Experts and Scholars through Scholarships.”

Another goal of the project is to encourage diversity, such as women, in the STEM fields.

“In general, there are not very many females or minorities in STEM,” Goseva-Popstojanova said. “We’re committed to increasing the number of women and members of underrepresented groups who get degrees with specialization in cybersecurity. This serves such a broader impact on society.