Center for Cyber Defense Education

Cyber Center

The CVTC IT - Network Specialist program has been designated by the NSA as a "Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education."

The goal of the CAE Cyber Defense Education program is to reduce vulnerability in our national information infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in cyber defense and producing professionals with cyber defense expertise.

The program helps students to proactively increase their understanding of robust information assurance and cyber defense (IA/CD) technology, policy, and practices to work collaboratively as professionals to enable our Nation to effectively prevent and respond to a catastrophic cyber event. This program will contribute significantly to the advancement of state-of-the-art IA/CD knowledge and practices.

Hands-On Training

The IT-NS program gives students large amounts of hands-on learning. Program courses contain countless labs where students take time to configure systems and services used in industry. Many classes in the IT-NS program utilize virtual machines in the CVTC data center to give access to servers and client systems from anywhere.

The IT-NS program has a data center that was completed in 2019 that students will use. Having physical access lets students get hands-on experience in a modern data center.

Advisory Board

The IT-Network Specialist program has an external advisory board made up of local industry leaders. It provides guidance and information related to current practices and emerging trends, in addition to technology challenges being faced in our community. The advisory board meets each spring semester in April and each Fall semester in November. Companies and organizations currently represented on the advisory board include Menards, IDEXX, JAMF Software, CCF Bank, Airstream Communications, Not-Tec Systems, and the City of Eau Claire amongst others. If you would like to participate in the IT-Network Specialist advisory board please contact the program director, Eric Brusky.