WC Georgia News

As part of October’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Columbus State University will host a free Community Shredding Event on Saturday, Oct. 15 to stress to students, employees and community members the importance of protecting one’s identity and others’ personally identifiable information.

The Community Shredding Event, sponsored by River Mill Data Management will take place in Lot 4 on CSU’s Main Campus (Clearview Circle behind the Synovus Center for Commerce & Technology) from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday. CSU affiliates and Columbus community members are encouraged to attend to learn about and practice safe and secure disposal of sensitive paperwork and files. Individuals should not bring binders, plastics, CDs, or large metal clips.

CSU will also acknowledge Cybersecurity Awareness Month with a series of focused, campus community events including subject-matter experts sharing their perspectives with the campus and Columbus communities, and students and employees benefitting from cybersecurity awareness training.

CSU faculty and staff can get involved in two STOP.THINK.CONNECT informative sessions on Wednesday, Oct. 12 and Wednesday, Oct. 26.

• Wednesday, Oct. 12, 11 a.m.: STOP.THINK.CONNECT informative session by Nicol Lewis, CSU chief information security officer (virtual Teams session)
• Wednesday, Oct. 26, 11 a.m.: STOP.THINK.CONNECT informative session by Loretta Marshall, CSU information security officer, (virtual Teams session)

Students are encouraged to attend the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) monthly meeting on Friday, Oct. 21 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Cyber Range classroom (Synovus Center for Commerce & Technology). Nigel Miller, director of information security operations and engineering, and Maximus, will be the presenter.

Since 2004, the president and Congress have declared October Cybersecurity Awareness Month, helping individuals protect themselves online as threats to technology and confidential data become more commonplace. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) lead a collaborative effort between government and industry to raise cybersecurity awareness nationally and internationally. 

In recent years, Columbus State has become a leader in cybersecurity education. Through its TSYS Center for Cybersecurity, CSU offers a full complement of academic offerings in the field that span certificates, nexus degrees, and traditional bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The university launched its novel Cybersecurity Nexus degree in August 2020 with feedback from industry partners to address a tremendous shortage of cybersecurity professionals. The nexus program is designed to fast-track future professionals to those career opportunities through a 60-hour course of study: 18 hours in cybersecurity-specific classes and an additional 42 in general education courses. An 18-credit-hour practitioner certification is also available, which students can earn in a 12-month, cohort-based model.

The center’s cyber range is also a “live-fire” range — meaning the center doubles as a training facility for industry professionals to practice live-fire exercises that address over 50,000 versions of malware on an exact replica of a company’s network. CSU’s range, purchased from Cyberbit, is the same range once used to train the Israeli Defense Force to protect the nation of Israel against cyber-attacks. The range can simulate cyber incursions ranging from a simple web defacement to a full-blown ransomware attack.

Original source can be found here.