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INSTITUTE, W.Va. — Students at West Virginia State University can now receive a bachelor’s degree in the field of cybersecurity.
The university was officially approved to offer cybersecurity as a major last week. Previously, students at WVSU could only minor in cybersecurity.
WVSU Cybersecurity Center Director Dr. Ali Al-Sinayyid says students will be taught about how to protect the nation’s most vital resources and structures.
Dr. Ali Al-Sinayyid
“We focus on protection of the critical infrastructure that includes water plants, chemical plants, agriculture, convocations, health systems, and how we are going to train the students to actively protect this critical infrastructure and how to defend it. To not give the opportunity to any attacker or cyber threat to use the vulnerabilities that already exist here or inherited and exploit it to attack the systems,” Al-Sinayyid said.
Cybersecurity is one of the fastest-growing fields in the country, and Al-Sinayyid says there are a couple of key reasons why the need is so great.
“There are approximately three or four million jobs right now available and there is a demand to cover it and seek trained professional people to work on it. The problem is not that people don’t apply for it, the problem is there is not enough skill or training for whoever applies for these jobs to run these jobs,” Al-Sinayyid said.
“The FBI director, this year, announced publicly that the critical infrastructure of the U.S. is under attack. The attack ratio is one good person — one defender — against 50 of the attackers. That’s why we need the workforce,” he added.
With the new bachelor’s program, students can choose to study general cybersecurity or specialize in agricultural-related cybersecurity. According to Al-Sinayyid, there is plenty to learn about if you specialize in agriculture.
“In agriculture, the students will be exposed to how to protect the IoT (Internet of Things) devices, microcontrollers, and anything related to smart farming devices,” Al-Sinayyid said. “Students will be able, not only to protect these devices, but also can develop some secure systems to communicate through the farming and communicate through the supply chain food.”
Al-Sinayyid says this is unique part of the field, but it’s vital to America’s farmers.
“It’s not common, but believe it or not, it’s one of the jobs that is required, and the U.S., as a nation, is in need of it,” Al-Sinayyid said.
WVSU cybersecurity students will be spending a lot of their time inside the WVSU Cybersecurity Innovation Center, which opened at the end of 2023. The CIC, which is located inside Wallace Hall, gives students hands-on experience with how to deal with critical public infrastructure and the threats that may creep in.
“The Cybersecurity Innovation Center; that’s what I call ‘my baby,” Al-Sinayyid joked.
The CIC was made possible by a joint grant of $2.5 million through the United States Department of Education to help establish cybersecurity as critical infrastructure in the state. The grant is in partnership with Marshall University.
Also contributing to the state-of-the-art facility was the Kanawha County Commission. In 2022, the commission awarded WVSU with a $764,792 grant to help with construction and facility costs.
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