Center for Information Assurance Works to Expand Training Opportunities Under FEMA

Along with the University of Arkansas, the UofM will develop new cybersecurity training

A FEMA Continuing Training Grant was awarded to the National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium of which the University of Memphis is a member. The grant lead is the University of Arkansas Criminal Justice Institute with the University of Memphis as a sub-awardee ($600,000). Dr. James McGinnis (Engineering Technology) and Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta (Computer Science) will lead the grant to develop new cybersecurity training. Accordingly, two web-based courses - Remote/Home-Office Cybersecurity Preparedness Training (RHC) and End-User Security and Privacy (ESP) will be developed and delivered at the local, state, federal and professional levels.

With the changing landscape of cybersecurity and the Work From Home (WFH) strategies due to Covid-19 Pandemic effect on the workforce, the need for home office and normal work strategy/infrastructures have become tightly coupled, and require using different cyber-enabled systems, devices, and services. This unexpected pandemic situation opened the door for remote work environments to continue performing tasks when and where possible. The need for cybersecurity training increased significantly to perform safe and secure work remotely. The degree of knowledge required may vary according to industrial sectors, but the intent of the proposed cybersecurity training is to prepare the workforce with the general knowledge on complex cyberattacks on the new work paradigm and prepare the workforce with the knowledge of how to identify and handle emerging threats.

This subaward is a part of $4M Homeland Security National Training grant received by NCPC (National Cyber Preparedness Consortium), of which UofM is a core member.

For more information on the project, visit Center for Information Assurance website (cfia.memphis.edu) under Project tab, or contact McGinnis at jmcgnnis@memphis.edu.