{"id":23896,"date":"2022-05-13T09:18:34","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T13:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/?p=23896"},"modified":"2022-05-16T10:12:59","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T14:12:59","slug":"marshall-students-participate-in-worlds-largest-international-cyber-defense-exercise-locked-shields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/2022\/05\/marshall-students-participate-in-worlds-largest-international-cyber-defense-exercise-locked-shields\/","title":{"rendered":"Students participate in world\u2019s largest international cyber defense exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"
Students from Marshall University went to Morgantown last month and participated in the world\u2019s largest international cyber defense exercise, run virtually by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia.<\/p>\n

This year, 24 \u201cBlue Teams\u201d from countries throughout the world competed in the \u201cLocked Shields\u201d exercise and competition April 19-21. West Virginia led the United States\u2019 Blue Team, which included mission assurance specialists from the West Virginia National Guard\u2019s Army Interagency Training and Education Center\u2019s Critical Infrastructure Protection Battalion, as well as the National Guard\u2019s legal specialists, cyber threat analysts, and public affairs experts to receive and resolve various injects of the simulated environment.<\/p>\n

Students from Marshall, as well as West Virginia University and West Virginia Tech, partnered with the U.S. Blue Team in taking on the role of a national cyber rapid reaction team deployed to assist the country in handling a large-scale cyber incident with all its implications.<\/p>\n

The West Virginia-led U.S. team finished 15th overall. The six Marshall students who participated included four from Marshall\u2019s Cyber Forensics and Security program in the College of Science \u2013 Alisha Joseph, John McFee, Ethan Endes and A.J. Clark \u2014 and two students from the Computer and Information Security program in the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences \u2014 Zander Lambert and Austin Woodrum.<\/p>\n

As participants, they learned how to function as part of a team and how organizations respond to cyberattacks, and how to apply what they\u2019ve learned in Marshall\u2019s academic programs to realistic cyberattacks, said John Sammons, chair of the Cyber Forensics and Security program and associate director of Marshall\u2019s Institute for Cyber Security.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a tremendous learning opportunity for students. Any time we can provide students an opportunity to participate in this kind of realistic exercise or environment, we do,\u201d Sammons said. \u201cEmployers are in dire need of employees that are as close to job ready as possible on day one. Our mission is to produce graduates that meet that demand. Locked Shields really helps us fulfill that mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollaborating with our academic and military partners made this exercise even more valuable for our students,\u201d Sammons continued.\u00a0 \u201cDuring Locked Shields, MU students got to participate alongside the professionals from the West Virginia National Guard and DISA (Defense Information Systems Agency). They also worked closely with students from West Virginia University, and the West Virginia University Institute of Technology. This created a learning experience that is very difficult to re-create in a college classroom. We\u2019re very grateful for the opportunity to participate in Locked Shields.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Marshall students who participated reported that the experience was beneficial in multiple ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to the Locked Shields competition was an amazing experience because of how immersive that it was,\u201d Alisha Joseph said. \u201cWorking alongside industry professionals allowed me to learn things that I could not learn in the classroom, and I was able to confidently complete our group objectives. I enjoyed the challenge of learning how to work in a small group to help our entire team achieve its goals, and I believe this experience has prepared me for my future in cybersecurity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethan Endres also feels more prepared for the future after Locked Shields.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt put me in a situation that was very realistic and immersive,\u201d he said. \u201cI got to work alongside government agency workers, West Virginia National Guard members and industry professionals in a collaborative environment. This helped me understand how a \u2018well-oiled machine\u2019 works in cyber. This was really cool for me to understand how the workflow between different teams worked externally and internally. I feel like the main thing I will take away from this exercise is thinking on the spot, being ready to ask questions frequently and being ready for things to go wrong and to be proactive.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Marshall graduate student John McFee, \u201cLocked Shields was not only an amazing real-world experience where I got to apply my collegiate knowledge in a hands-on manner, but was also an excellent opportunity to network and learn about the different jobs available in cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met numerous industry professionals who gave me some of the best advice I\u2019ve received regarding my future in this field. LS \u201922 gave me a better appreciation of what to expect when I graduate from Marshall\u2019s Cyber Forensics and Security M.S. and provided me with some of the experience that jobs are looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, working alongside other students and professionals in the cybersecurity field was a tremendous opportunity to meet others on the same path, McFee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gave me a renewed sense of, \u2018I’m glad I picked this field, and this is definitely what I want to do,\u2019 \u201d he said. \u201cWatching the professionals put their whole skill sets into this exercise was an exciting opportunity and I was able to pick up a few skills as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information about Marshall\u2019s cybersecurity programs, visit www.marshall.edu\/cfs<\/a> and https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cecs\/b-s-in-computer-and-information-security\/<\/a> .<\/p>\n

———–<\/p>\n

Photo:<\/em> (1) Marshall students Austin Woodrum (left) and John McFee participate in the Locked Shields international cybersecurity exercise in April 2022 in Morgantown.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students from Marshall University went to Morgantown last month and participated in the world\u2019s largest international cyber defense exercise, run virtually by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":23897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,45,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cos","category-featured","category-news-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23896"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23911,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23896\/revisions\/23911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}