BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — Cyber attacks happen all day, every day — and Northeastern State University's Broken Arrow campus has a program designed to fight back.
The university's cyber security program and lab does more than teach students the academic side of digital security. It gives them real-world experience while offering free help to businesses and people in the community through its Cyber security Clinic.
"People see your police officers, your doctors, and all the firemen that help, but not many people see who's behind the screens," NSU junior Sequoua Brown said. But she adds, those protecting you behind your screen are just as important to keeping your digital life safe and secure.
The university's program has evolved significantly since its early days. Dr. Stacey White, who leads the cyber security program, said he discovered a gap between what students were learning and what employers actually wanted.
"This program itself, when I first started, was purely academic," White said.
"One of the things that I did when I took over the program, the undergrad program, was to find out why students weren't being hired in the field. And what I got back was that, yeah, it's nice that you have that degree, but you don't have any experience. And that's why we at NSU went out and got an internship grant from Google in order to give them that practitioner experience that clients want them to have. And that prepares them to work in the field, and has successfully done so," White said.
That funding comes from Google and the Cherokee Nation ACES grant program, according to Dr. Eloy Chavez of NSU.
Since August 2022, about 70 students have graduated from the program.
Chavez described the clinic's purpose as an extension of classroom learning.
"The cyber security clinic, it's where students can extend their classroom learning, what they learned in the program, and then apply it through experiences, industry-recognized training, internships, working with employers, and they engage themselves in real-world cyber security experiential needs," Chavez said.
The clinic offers free vulnerability scans to the community. Those interested can contact NSUBA's Continuing Education Office at 918-444-4618.
Students in the program also benefit from access to certification vouchers and hands-on experience — two things NSU senior Ian Jorgensen said made the program stand out.
"Things like vouchers for certificates and certifications was a huge draw to me as a college student. And then hands-on experience, because that's something employers are looking for as you graduate and enter the workforce, they're really looking for that hands-on experience, and that's really going to make you stand out among the crowd of applicants," Jorgensen said.
Jorgensen internship has him worksing as a systems network engineer at a managed service provider in Tulsa, where his day-to-day work includes monitoring phishing alerts and troubleshooting for client companies. He said his long-term goal is to work in Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance — the policy side of cyber security.
Students don't have to be on the Broken Arrow campus to participate. Brown takes all of her courses online. Cyber security courses are available online to anyone within the NSU system.
Brown, who was drawn to cyber security through an interest in true crime show, said the hybrid format — with professors from both Broken Arrow and Tahlequah — has worked well for her.
White said the field's rapid growth makes the program's practical focus more important than ever.
"A lot of students that attend are either have IT experience, or they're looking to go into IT or cyber security. With the field being as explosive as it is right now," White said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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