The alarming notice appeared without warning on the town of North Kingstown’s computer system in April.
A message said hackers had taken control of the town’s data, and town officials should contact them to discuss a ransom. What the hackers apparently weren’t aware of was that the town had taken steps to guard itself from ransomware attacks.
The apparent breach sent the town into emergency mode and disrupted online services. However, thanks to the foresight of town officials, the data had been stored on a cloud service, and thus seemed to be safe.
Such attacks have become commonplace in recent years, highlighting both the threat posed by hackers and the need for trained experts to combat it. A new center for cybersecurity studies to be housed at Rhode Island College’s School of Business will aim to fill that need.
Led by former U.S. Representative James R. Langevin, the Institute of Cybersecurity & Emerging Technologies will expand RIC’s cybersecurity classes to offer bachelor’s degrees and, ultimately, master’s degrees on the subject. The center will act as a hub for professional development in the state, with promises to develop curriculum for other higher education institutions, establish a fellowship program and create a “workforce pipeline” for middle and high school students.
Eventually, it will also provide training in artificial intelligence and other emerging technology.
“We want to put our college and our state at the forefront of one of the most rapidly growing and most strategically important industries in the country,” said Jack Warner, interim president of RIC.
On June 9, the General Assembly approved Gov. Daniel J. McKee’s proposal in the fiscal 2024 state budget to set aside $4 million to fund the center over the next three years, with $2 million coming from the state’s Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund and the rest from RIC.
Donald Nokes, head of NetCenergy LLC, a firm that provides information technology services, welcomes the idea of a center for cybersecurity. Businesses across the state – from hospitals to banks, government offices and tech firms – could benefit from it. And he says “there really is no end in sight” for the need for cybersecurity experts.
“It’s sort of this arms race, where hackers come up with some new technologies to infiltrate our security systems, and then our developers – guys in the white hats – are creating better tools to help identify and prevent the kind of attacks from happening,” Nokes said.
Demand is certainly strong. According to CyberSeek, an online tracker for cybersecurity job postings, there were 2,700 openings posted between May 2022 and April 2023 in Rhode Island, an above-average demand compared with other states. The data also shows gaps in the professional certifications required for the jobs. For example, there are only 278 certified information systems security professionals in Rhode Island, but 668 of the openings are requesting the credential.
Over the years, Nokes has noticed that while the demand for cybersecurity expertise is growing, the workforce needed to meet it seems to be missing. Even now, he has an open position that he has struggled to fill, and from anecdotal evidence, he has gathered that many graduates of cybersecurity programs in Rhode Island leave the state for jobs elsewhere.
“Whether they’re all leaving the state or whether they’re all getting hired within the state, there still aren’t a lot of them available for us,” Nokes said.
It is hard to tell whether Rhode Island’s cybersecurity workforce is growing.
Labor statistics do not have a category for cybersecurity workers. Instead, they could fall under two categories: information and custom computer programming services. According to the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, the information sector has shrunk significantly over the past decade, from 10,145 workers in 2011 to over 5,700 in 2022 (in 2017 about 2,000 positions were reclassified into another sector). Meanwhile, the workforce in custom computer programming services has more than tripled, from about 1,100 workers to more than 3,700.
Langevin, who focused heavily on cybersecurity during his time in Congress, sees the gaps in the job market as an opportunity. He says the institute at RIC will partner with business owners to fill their needs and help develop the center’s program offerings.
“Businesses will help to meet and solve their own problems and their needs in cybersecurity by helping us both to better develop the program so that we’re teaching what businesses need, but then also [by] providing internship and apprenticeship opportunities so that students have a place to go right away before they graduate,” Langevin said.
Warner says the institute also will do contract work for local businesses, such as offering professional development courses to train staff in cybersecurity.
Additionally, Langevin plans to get accreditation for the institute from the National Security Agency’s National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity program, which determines curriculum standards. By joining, the institute will qualify for the federal government’s CyberCorps, a scholarship program for undergraduate and graduate students in cybersecurity studies.
Langevin hopes that graduates of the program will decide to fill jobs in Rhode Island. According to Warner, around 70% of RIC’s graduates stay in the state. n
