Cybersecurity firm Sophos Group plc today announced a new partnership with Boise State University’s Insitute for Pervasive Security to provide Boise State University access to Sophos’ endpoint security offerings to create experiential learning opportunities for students and assist in addressing the worldwide cybersecurity skill gap.

The issues with a shortage of cybersecurity workers have been well-documented. A report from the nonprofit International Information System Security Certification Consortium in October 2022 found that there was an estimated shortage of more than 3.4 million cybersecurity workers needed to secure assets effectively.

The new Sophos initiative, starting at Boise State, seeks to address the skill gap and provide new opportunities for students and organizations in Idaho. The Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity’s Cyberdome is using Sophos Intercept X with extended detection and response in its “Cyberdome” to increase cybersecurity services provided to Idaho organizations.

The Cyberdome is a collaborative hub for competency-based development that allows Idaho students to gain hands-on work experience by providing cybersecurity services to rural Idaho school districts, counties and cities. Cyberdome students are enrolled at universities and colleges across Idaho and graduate from the program with critical real-world experience to advance into professional cybersecurity specialist positions.

Sophos Intercept X with XDR will be used by students to monitor client assets, detect threats from cyber adversaries and report to clients on possible avenues of exploitation. The Cyberdome is said to engage interested rural K-12 school districts, rural counties with election system security and critical rural city systems that support water and electric districts throughout  Idaho.

“This partnership brings advanced, next-generation endpoint threat detection and response cybersecurity capabilities to rural organizations that would not otherwise be able to afford or maintain them,” said Edward Vasko, director of the Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity. “This is a great opportunity for Sophos and Boise State University to collaborate on critically needed  cyber defense initiatives and workforce development efforts.”

The Cyberdrome has already seen success, with Cyberdome students monitoring more than 5,000 assets, analyzing more than 53,000 possible attacks and notifying clients of 350 potential real-time attacks.

“There is a worldwide cybersecurity skills gap today and by helping students with the program’s hands-on cybersecurity training, we’re helping to equip the next generation of the cybersecurity workforce,” noted Joe Levy, president and chief technology officer at Sophos.

Cyberdome students will leverage Sophos’ technology in live, real-world environments through internships provided by grants from the Idaho Global Entrepreneurship Mission’s Higher Education Research Council and Idaho’s Workforce Development Council.

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