Inside FMCC’s IBM-Powered Cyber Range
Workforce Readiness in the Digital Age
Imagine this: In a carpeted 800-square foot room with white walls, three rows of students sit in front of computers facing a wall with three large panoramic monitors. Then without warning, the overhead lights dim, and red lights flash on, indicating that a network is under attack. Heart rates increase, and a flurry of activity takes over as students begin to neutralize the threat.
As the world becomes increasingly dependent on digital technology, cybercrime across the globe is escalating and evolving rapidly. Last year, roughly 2,400 cyberattacks affected 340 million people in the United States alone. Data breaches spiked by 72 percent between 2021 and 2023, costing companies an average of $4.45 million per breach to mitigate.
In 2023, 94 percent of companies experienced email security incidents such as malware, and compromised emails caused businesses over $2.9 billion in losses. Other cyberthreats include phishing and ransomware. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, cyberattacks cost New Yorkers $777 million in 2023.
Immersive Cybersecurity Curriculum
Real-Time Defense Training
SUNY Fulton Montgomery Community College (FMCC) intends to help reduce those numbers. Last year, the college built an IBM cyber range that can simulate a cyberattack, giving students and cybersecurity professionals immersive, realistic, real-time training in a highly pressurized yet secure and controlled environment.
“It adds the ability to add live-fire exercises to our curriculum,” said Martin Waffle, Technology Division Chair and computer science professor at FMCC. “We can simulate attacks in our cyber range and have our students defend against those attacks.” Fifty percent of the coursework for cybersecurity students will be in the cyber range.
From Demonstration to Deployment
Powered by IBM & AWS
The college built this experiential training feature after FMCC computer science instructor Billy Eipp attended an IBM cyber range demonstration in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The lab opened on May 2, 2024, and students began using it that fall. IBM designed the lab, and Amazon Web Services software powers it.
Funding came from several sources. The State University of New York Transformation Fund, which operates for the purpose of supporting innovation on state college campuses, provided $350,000. Montgomery County supported the project with a $200,000 grant that New York State matched. The FMCC Foundation contributed $50,000, a sum that was matched by New York State.
From Theory to Execution
Advanced Tools
The college recognizes that simply having a degree is not enough to meet the challenges of the cybersecurity battlefield. Professionals need hands-on experience to develop cybercombat abilities using resources like penetration testing, intrusion detection systems and digital forensics tools.
The cyber range is a critical piece in providing students the skills and experience to make them effective in the workforce, taking their learning from theory to practice. “Having a cyber range on campus gives the students a great advantage to learn even deep technologies with the availability of highly advanced resources that are capable of doing highly sophisticated tasks,” said FMCC cybersecurity instructor Koushik Gaini, who came on board in July 2024.
Students will learn how to combat phishing attacks used to steal money and personal and financial information. “They will also learn to eradicate the harmful malware that can harm the computers and compromise data integrity and social engineering attacks that are devised with different motives.”
Enrollment Surge & Job Readiness
High-Demand Careers
The cyber range also allows students’ coursework to be as current as possible. “You should be training on the most recent types of cyberattacks using the most recent software, and our lab allows you to bring both into one environment,” Waffle said.
Before the addition of the cyber range, that was not possible. “That’s why having this cyber range is so pivotal. We were sending graduates into the workplace with a lot of knowledge but no experience, and now we can give them both. We can give them knowledge and live fire experience.”
The addition of the cyber range has bolstered student enrollment in the cybersecurity program, increasing it from 32 applicants in 2023 to 66 the following year. This is a good sign for industry, as there are over half a million vacancies in the sector nationwide. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is projecting that in the next decade, the availability of cyber-related jobs with a median salary of $120,360 will increase by 32 percent.
Beyond Student Impact
Business Solutions
Having the cyber range has positioned SUNY FMCC to be able to help businesses with their cybersecurity training. Specifically, the college can provide highly customized training opportunities tailored to a business’ digital systems and software tools.
“We can make our network look like their network, and then we can launch an attack in a controlled environment,” Waffle said, noting that 40 software vendors are allowing the college to use their cybercrime-fighting tools in the lab. “We can simulate an attack and how to defend against it with the actual tools that a business is using in its organization.”
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