MSIs Make Cybersecurity Education Gains Despite Funding Deficit

Minority-serving institutions (MSIs) are making strides with their cybersecurity programs for underrepresented students — despite inadequate funding.

In a Minority Serving-Cyberinfrastructure Consortium study, almost 60% of respondents from historically Black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, and tribal colleges and universities said funding was one of the biggest barriers to their schools’ cyberinfrastructure goals.

Lawmakers are introducing legislation to address funding disparities and diversify the cybersecurity workforce. However, even without federal funding, these programs continue to work toward their goals.

The Cybersecurity Center at Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver) is one of several programs nationwide that offers experiential learning opportunities to minority and underrepresented students. These programs are preparing students for work in the cybersecurity field.

Hispanic and Latino/a students make up nearly 40% of MSU Denver’s student body, providing a diverse population that experts like the founder and director of the school’s Cybersecurity Center, Richard Mac Namee, say is important to expanding and diversifying the cybersecurity workforce.

Diversity allows for accommodating different cultural understandings of a cybersecurity problem that might be impacting a business or business owner, Mac Namee told BestColleges. It also addresses linguistic barriers in our worldwide industry. There is a need to have people that can speak more than one language that you might need to interact with in the field.

Over 120 students participating in one of MSU Denver’s programs, Centurion, work daily to ward off real security threats to clients in the government and corporate sectors.

It is not a simulation, Mac Namee said. This is real on-the-job training that requires students to meet certain criteria just to remain a part of the program.

Students must stop hackers from infiltrating clients’ networks. They do so by identifying threats and escalating them to more experienced cybersecurity professionals, like Mac Namee and his staff.

Without much help from grant funding, MSU Denver was able to turn its experiential learning experience into a paid product.

The Cyber Range, another program at the center, exposes students to network attacks and requires them to provide adequate defenses. It is also made available to private sector clients as a means of training — and revenue production for the center.

It’s how we enable our students to go through our programs, Mac Namee said.

Most, if not all, of them, wouldn’t be able to afford our services if we didn’t have a means of generating funding to assist them. Serving private clients is one way we can ensure our students’ continued participation and ultimate contributions to the field.

Corporate clients pay for Centurion’s monitoring as well, Mac Namee said, although he doesn’t charge governmental clients. Additional funding for the center comes from MSU Denver and a limited allotment from the Colorado Attorney General’s office.

Even though the Cybersecurity Center is functional with its current level of financing, Mac Namee said federal funding would be greatly needed and received.

These programs are extremely expensive to operate. If tuition is $1,500 for students to go through a program like the Cyber Range, for example, the actual cost to operate the range is $2,000. That excess money needs to come from somewhere.

Mac Namee said MSU Denver has previously applied for federal funding to help finance collegiate cybersecurity programs, but it has been unsuccessful.

One of those programs, the CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (SFS), administered by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), offers scholarships to universities whose students commit to postgraduate employment with government agencies.

The NSF gives preference to programs serving minority and underrepresented students. The foundation awarded $16 million to six universities in 2023. But with 116 MSI-designated institutions hosting cybersecurity programs throughout the nation, there is simply not enough funding for all of them.

A proposed bipartisan U.S. House bill would provide funds for these programs and broaden paths to careers in the field for underrepresented populations.

According to a press release, the Cybersecurity Clinics Grant Program Act (CCGPA) would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to create grant programs to finance cybersecurity clinics at community colleges and MSIs, including historically Black and Hispanic-serving institutions.

Mac Namee hopes legislation like the CCGPA will alleviate these programs’ financial struggles and said MSU Denver would be interested in participating in the program if it is approved.

We would most definitely apply for consideration, he said.

The CCGPA calls for the creation of clinics to help students gain the skills and training necessary for success in the cybersecurity field. According to the press release, these clinics will help:

The bill also requires CISA to develop a cybersecurity curriculum for grant recipients, which will help students gain the practical tools needed for working in the field.

The CCGPA is currently in committee. It has not yet been set for a vote, according to the House’s official bill tracking website.