National Guard Conducts Cybersecurity Training
The Montana National Guard’s Defensive Cyber Operations Element provided a day of training and familiarization to students, and a report of Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency Cyber Resilience Review Self-Assessment and Innovative Readiness Training to Montana State University faculty, staff, students and guard leadership, Sept. 5-6, at MSU.
The DCOE has been working with MSU since January of this year. Through this project, the guard provided interactive cybersecurity training and experience to both guardsmen and university faculty, staff, and students. The full team first met on the Bozeman campus, then over the past 6 months, members of smaller guard teams traveled to MSU’s satellite campuses in Billings, Great Falls, and Havre.
“This joint training provided by the Montana National Guard was a great opportunity for students studying in the area of cybersecurity and our staff who work dayto- day on the university’s information technology infrastructure,” said Ryan Knutson, MSU Vice President of Information Technology. “The cybersecurity environment is constantly changing and sharpening our skills together with members of the Montana National Guard was a great opportunity for us all.”
The guard used this exercise as a training opportunity to assist MSU in further developing their cybersecurity posture. The process assesses and evaluates an organization’s ability to manage cyber risk, by using their people, information, technology, and facilities to support specific operational missions and services.
The CRR utilizes 10 domains with which an organization can plan, manage, measure, and define their cybersecurity practice and behavior. It seeks participation from a cross-functional team consisting of multiple representatives from within an organization and a final report is generated which contains each of the questions and answers within the assessment, along with relevant options for further consideration by the organization.
Information security is one of the most important issues being addressed by IRT projects, to help develop partnerships in keeping our data and cyber infrastructure secure. Through these relationships we can develop training opportunities to lead and create policies, processes, and procedures to address future threats, and develop essential skills to thrive in contested cyberspace domains. The DCOE already has IRT missions scheduled for future training years.
“We were only able to participate in this exercise at the request of MSU, and because of their desire to think ahead and protect everyone they work with. Having additional federal funding, we were able to provide the training at no cost to MSU, and for the equivalent amount of cyber assistance and consultation would cost $383,500,” said Lt. Col. Tony Lecce, DCOE Mission Command Supervisor. He thanked MSU for the training value that soldiers
