Bay Path cybersecurity students attack in order to defend businesses' sensitive data

12/11/2018 --LONGMEADOW -- Mariellys Pena, a senior forensic science major from Waterbury, Connecticut, shows off lab equipment Monday at Bay Path University in Longmeadow to Gov. Charlie Baker as state Rep. Brian M. Ashe, D-Longmeadow, looks on. State Rep. Angelo J. Puppolo, D-Springfield, and state Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, are in the background. (Jim Kinney / The Republican)

LONGMEADOW -- Students from Bay Path University and Springfield Technical Community College are planning cyberattacks against local businesses -- and Gov. Charlie Baker won't do anything to stop them.

In fact, the state has already bankrolled the operation, and Baker offered his encouragement on a tour of the Bay Path campus in Longmeadow.

The attacks will be for cybersecurity assessments the businesses will order. Students might send "phishing" emails in search of passwords, or just call up and ask for access to sensitive files. It'll be sophisticated work performed by interns under the direction of Delcie Bean and his Paragus IT team in a new course of study Bay Path showed off to the governor Tuesday.

Stolen data and compromised computer networks are a threat not just to business but also to government, Baker said. Preventing these attacks both safeguards the state and is a business opportunity for those trained in the science of data security.

"This is the kind of thing that often keeps me up at night because of my current job," Baker said.

He turned to Bean.

"How often are you successful at getting in?" Baker asked.

Bean smiled.

"We always get in," he said. "Sometimes it takes a few days."

Baker spent the afternoon touring Greater Springfield, including stops on the STCC campus and a session at Make IT Springfield, a community workshop and maker space on Worthington Street.

At Bay Path, Baker also met with trustees and toured biology labs in Carr Hall before meeting with computer science classes.

In 2015, Bay Path received $500,000 from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center to purchase lab equipment and supplies that will enable the university to expand collaborative student research and prepare young women for life sciences careers.

Bay Path received $250,000 from the state for the cybersecurity program in September of this year. The university is leading a project that will engage undergraduate and graduate cybersecurity students, primarily women, in a full year of challenging experiences as paid interns on cybersecurity teams.

Bean said there is plenty of call for cybersecurity assessments, and companies like his need employers to do the work. But it's hard to get a job in the field with no experience and no way to get experience.

"So we came up with the idea of an internship program," he said.

Thomas Loper, Bay Path's associate provost and dean for the School of Arts, Science and Management, said students from the program will come from STCC, Bay Path's undergraduate and graduate programs in cybersecurity, and from its American Women's College online program.

Starting in February, the students will have paid internships with Paragus IT doing cybersecurity assessments for local companies. The companies will pay a reduced rate. At the end, the companies will get a list of their weak points and learn how to strengthen their data security, Bean said.

The Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts will recruit the companies, said president and CEO Richard Sullivan. He hopes to get small to midsize manufacturers to participate.

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