SEMO's cyber command center: A game changer for cybersecurity education

Southeast Missouri State University’s successful cybersecurity program is receiving a major upgrade with its new cyber command center, which is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.

Through a partnership with IBM, SEMO’s cyber command center will be an extension of the university’s existing X-Force Cyber Range, which was completed in 2019. According to T. Robin Cole III, president and chief executive officer of The Right Group in Jackson who has worked directly with IBM and SEMO on the project, the university’s command center is one of 10 that will be built globally.

Currently, four of the 10 cyber command centers have been constructed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Bengaluru, India, Ottawa, Ontario, and Washington, D.C.

SEMO’s center — the first of its kind to be built west of the Mississippi River — will be the fifth and is reportedly the only one that can simulate “live-fire attacks in a safe environment.”

“We are excited to work with IBM X-Force Cyber representatives on this project, so our students can train by experiencing true-to-life cyber response scenarios in a full-scale security operations center,” SEMO president Carlos Vargas said in a news release from the university.

The command center will consist of three types of cyber consoles — an “immersive” 27-foot display wall, an observation room and dedicated servers — that support up to 27 computer stations, allowing students to practice realistic breach scenarios.

“The IBM Cyber Command Center will allow students to learn crisis best practices including leadership and decision-making principles, communication tactics and crisis frameworks,” said Mario Garcia, chairman of SEMO’s Institute of Cybersecurity.

Garcia said IBM is also providing 1,500 software programs for use at the center and the department will have access to Amazon Web Services.

“That means that we can have unlimited resources to simulate a supercomputer,” Garcia said.

The cyber command center will be utilized by more than just cybersecurity students, as plans to bring in area CEOs and IT workers are already in the works.

“The university will begin marketing to attract organizations to bring their executive leadership and their IT administration to training exercises for live-fire simulation missions to elevate the expertise of cybersecurity in organizations that want to participate,” Cole said.

In addition, Cole said he was told by IBM on Thursday, Aug. 1, that SEMO’s command center will be part of a national marketing campaign for cyber ranges in higher education.

According to Garcia, the total cost of the project is $2.5 million. He said $1.5 million was secured through a grant from the State of Missouri for the project, and the other $1 million came from a donor, whom Garcia said the center would likely be named after.

Garcia said the physical room that houses the cyber command center in Dempster Hall is 95% complete, but Institute of Cybersecurity staff will have to undergo training before it will be available for use by students.

“Next week, we expect to have a face-to-face meeting with the IBM people to discuss these 1,500 different software programs and training modules that they have, so that we can select what we need because 1,500 programs is a lot of information,” Garcia said. “That will take maybe two to three weeks to review how to integrate those within our classes. We expect to do the inauguration in mid-October.”

With the project nearing completion, Garcia said the experience has been rewarding.

“SEMO is going to be an example at the national level for other universities,” Garcia said. “For me, personally, it’s very rewarding. But another reward is going to be seeing the benefit for our community from elementary school kids to seniors. That's going to be the best part of this project, to see people learning about cybersecurity and the importance of it.”

According to SEMO’s news release, global cybercrime costs are projected to reach $10.5 trillion globally by 2025 and the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported nearly $7 billion of that would be lost in the United States, alone. The release cited Cybersecurity Ventures, which reported an increase in cybersecurity job vacancies in the U.S. from one million to 3.5 million from 2013 to 2023. About 700,000 open jobs went unfilled last year.

With SEMO’s cyber command center providing real-life cyberattack scenarios, individuals will have the opportunity to prepare in advance for an attack rather than gain experience on the fly.

“We get experience training during a real live cyberattack,” Cole said, “and that's just tragically too late.”