UA Students Gain Real World Cybersecurity Experience on Campus
University of Alabama students are not waiting until graduation to step into the cybersecurity field. They are already doing the work.
According to a press release from The University of Alabama, eight students in the first cohort of a new workforce development program are serving inside UA’s Security Operations Center, working alongside the Office of Information Technology and cybersecurity vendor TekStream to monitor and respond to threats targeting campus systems.
The students act as a first line of defense, helping analyze phishing attempts, spam, and other suspicious activity before issues escalate.
“We use industry leading security platforms from Splunk and Microsoft, where the students monitor security alerts,” Taylor Anderson, UA’s chief information security officer, said according to a press release from The University of Alabama. “The students are part of a Slack channel with TekStream, so they’re in constant contact.”
Students say the experience goes far beyond a typical campus job.
“I enjoy analyzing security alerts because each alert can be different,” junior Ciara Laird said according to a press release from The University of Alabama.
Participants complete a six week training program through TekStream before becoming Tier I SOC Security Analysts. The program is open to freshmen through juniors and includes students from computer science and business backgrounds.
University leaders say the hands on experience prepares students for long term careers in cybersecurity, giving them real responsibility and exposure to live security incidents while helping protect UA’s network every day.
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