Boise State University’s Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity will partner with Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service. This partnership provides Boise State University access to Sophos’ endpoint security offerings, creating experiential learning opportunities for students and increased benefits for Idaho organizations.
The Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity’s Cyberdome will use Sophos Intercept X with XDR (extended detection and response) to increase cybersecurity services provided to Idaho organizations. The Cyberdome, a collaborative hub for competency-based development, enables Idaho students to gain hands-on work experience by providing cybersecurity services to rural Idaho school districts, counties, and cities. Cyberdome students are enrolled at universities and colleges across Idaho and graduate from the program with critical real-world experience to advance into professional cybersecurity specialist’s positions.
“This partnership brings advanced, next-generation endpoint threat detection and response cybersecurity capabilities to rural organizations that would not otherwise be able to afford or maintain them,” said Edward Vasko, director of the Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity. “This is a great opportunity for Sophos and Boise State University to collaborate on critically needed cyber defense initiatives and workforce development efforts.”
Sophos Intercept X with XDR will be used by students to monitor client assets, detect threats from cyber adversaries, and report to clients on possible avenues of exploitation. The Cyberdome engages interested rural K-12 school districts, rural counties with election system security, and critical rural city systems that support water and electric districts throughout Idaho. Between January and July of 2023, Cyberdome students monitored over 5,000 assets, analyzed over 53,000 possible attacks and notified clients of 350 potential real-time attacks. Sophos Intercept X with XDR will increase Cyberdome students and staff’s ability to protect and analyze data for possible attacks.
“This partnership supports two critical issues in cybersecurity. First, our Sophos Intercept X endpoint solution will be deployed to different sized organizations around Idaho, including those in rural areas, to help them defend against data breaches, ransomware and other cyberattacks. Organizations in smaller, local communities are not immune to attacks and need frontline protection, detection and response as much as any other business around the world. Second, there is a worldwide cybersecurity skills gap today, and by helping students with the program’s hands-on cybersecurity training, we’re helping to equip the next generation of the cybersecurity workforce,” said Joe Levy, president and chief technology officer at Sophos. “Our research shows that attackers are executing their attack lifecycles in two fewer days than previously measured. That’s 48 hours less time to detect and respond, making adaptive technologies like Intercept X a critical piece of protection to minimize damage and costs. We’re proud to collectively invest in improving cybersecurity outcomes by providing Cyberdome students with access to Sophos’ industry-best endpoint security for learning critical skills and protecting organizations from attacks.”
Cyberdome students will leverage Sophos’ technology in live, real-world environments through internships provided by grants from the Idaho Global Entrepreneurship Mission’s Higher Education Research Council (IGEM-HERC) and Idaho’s Workforce Development Council.
