LOWELL — Local and UMass Lowell officials Thursday morning celebrated the opening of the university’s new Cyber Security Operations Center, which will be used to provide local governments, businesses and nonprofits with expert cybersecurity guidance while training the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
Officials packed into a room tucked into the fourth floor of UML’s Wannalancit Mills building on Suffolk Street, where rows of computers displayed different data dashboards about cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
The center is part of the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor, and was made possible in part through a $300,000 grant from the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s MassCyberCenter, with support from the Science Applications International Corporation.
“This is an entity that is focused on supporting and strengthening our cyber resilience, and also making sure we provide that next generation of trained professionals,” said UML Chancellor Julie Chen.
Chen compared modern cybersecurity challenges to the old “Spy vs. Spy” cartoons, with both cyber criminals and those defending against them constantly finding workarounds for each other.
“The offense is continuing to expand; we need to make sure we are continuing to provide the defense,” said Chen.
Though the grand opening was being celebrated Thursday, Chen noted that five UML students are already doing internships through the new Cyber SOC.
“They are getting that real-world experience on how to keep businesses, how to keep communities safe with cyberthreats, and they are getting that experience while side by side with professionals in the field,” said Chen.
U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan said the new center represents “the next chapter” in Lowell’s long history of being a center for innovation.
“It couldn’t come at a more important time. In 2024 data breaches hit nearly 4.5 million Massachusetts residents, and that number can be hard to fathom … but it is definitely real, it is real for families whose financial information was exposed. It is real for businesses who have been locked out of their own systems, and certainly for city halls and town halls scrambling to keep services running,” said Trahan.
She noted that this is the fifth center of its kind in Massachusetts.
“Importantly, it is the only one built to support small- and medium-sized defense companies,” said Trahan.
Lowell Mayor Erik Gitschier recalled Lowell’s ordeal with a cyberattack in 2023.
“It really threw us into a whirlwind. How do we fix these things? With the help of UMass Lowell and Chancellor Chen, we are going to have more confidence in that,” said Gitschier.
“That is why having resources like UMass Lowell’s SOC available to help organizations monitor, detect and respond to cyber threats is so important,” Gitschier said later.
MassTech Collaborative Deputy Director Ben Linville-Engler said cybersecurity amounts to economic security.
“That goes for municipalities, small and medium businesses, healthcare centers, you name it. Digital systems are everywhere, as are cyber challenges,” said Linville-Engler.
Linville-Engler said MassTech’s vision has always been to extend support to small- and medium-sized businesses. From the state’s perspective he said the goal has been to “play offense on defense.”
“The way we want to do that is really to establish a new era for our defense and national security ecosystem here in Massachusetts,” said Linville-Engler.
Among the interns working through the Cyber SOC is UML senior Alexandra Fabian, who said she found a passion for pattern recognition and data logic early on.
“Having worked for CyberTrust for two months now, my focus has primarily been on the front lines of the SOC, essentially dealing with daily operations and turning complex data into clear summaries for our clients,” said Fabian.
Fabian said her long-term goal is to be working in cybersecurity somewhere in the healthcare industry, “where protecting sensitive client data matters the most.”
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