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“ I knew from the beginning that West Virginia had the ability to become the nation’ s premier source of cybersecurity knowledge and leadership that could enable the cybersecurity, operations and defense of America’ s civilian and military cyber infrastructure,” says Bill Walker, senior adviser for national security and cyberspace programs at WVU.“ The instant buy-in and willingness to work with national security partners showed me this state can be the exemplar public, private and academic partnership and be of great value to federal, state and local governments alike.”
At WVU, the Cyber Resilience Resource Center( CRRC) focuses on preparing businesses and critical infrastructure to absorb a cyberattack and keep going instead of slowly recovering after one occurs. The center works to make cybersecurity real, practical and within reach.
“ At the CRRC, we equip West Virginia’ s organizations with the tools, training and support needed to stay ahead of cyber threats,” says Christopher Ramezan, Ph. D., CISSP, CISM, assistant professor of cybersecurity at WVU and executive director of the CRRC.“ We give students real-world experience alongside top industry experts. Through collaboration across higher education, government and industry, we help protect critical infrastructure, strengthen local economies, build a more robust workforce and ensure West Virginia is not just ready but resilient.”
“ I knew from the beginning that West Virginia had the ability to become the nation’ s premier source of cybersecurity knowledge.”
The CRRC supports a large range of needs, including cyber risk assessments, tailored network and data solutions and optimized IT systems and processes. More than that, according to Ramezan, WVU has become a national leader in cybersecurity research, outreach and education. The CRRC’ s dynamic capabilities are paving a path forward.
“ Our primary goal for West Virginia is to bring together education, government and industry under a shared vision: to protect critical infrastructure, support workforce development and continue to elevate West Virginia’ s role on the national cybersecurity stage,” Walker says.“ Our efforts are defensive in nature but are also proactive as they focus on innovation, resilience and preparing the next generation of cyber professionals.”
For the CRRC, part of being proactive includes leveraging artificial intelligence( AI) to enhance its abilities. Although AI has risks as cybercriminals are also using it, Ramezan sees it as a useful tool.
“ AI is game-changing for cybersecurity professionals and organizations as it helps us analyze and find patterns in the vast amount of network, IT and cyber-related data cyber analysts sift through every day,” Ramezan says.“ Cybersecurity data really is big data, and AI and machine learning algorithms can help to identify and detect patterns in
Building the foundation of West Virginia’ s future
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