Springfield’s Union Station will be site of Cybersecurity Center of Excellence with $1.5 million state grant

MASSLIVE: SPRINGFIELD — Union Station commuters will wait for trains and grab their morning coffee while on the other side of the Dunkin’ Donuts and Subway, unseen in a not-so -secret lab, a new generation of cyber warriors will hone their skills and even battle still-emerging global security threats.

Springfield Technical Community College and a consortium of Western Massachusetts colleges and universities received a $1.46 million state grant Monday with the backing of the U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield to establish a Cybersecurity Center of Excellence.

The funding from the outgoing administration of Gov. Charlie Baker-Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and the Mass Cyber Center, along with $500,000 from the city, will establish a security operations center and cyber range at Union Station. College officials say they hope to have the 6,000-square-foot center open in early 2024.

It is one of two such centers to be established in the state. The other will be situated at Bridgewater State University.

“This is cutting-edge technology,” Neal said, going on to describe how cybersecurity is a daily presence in all of our lives. “Let’s be frank about it, the threat comes from Russia and China. That’s where the threat comes from,” added Neal, chairman of the House Committee on Ways & Means.

Location of the cybersecurity center on the first floor of Union Station means building owner Springfield Redevelopment Authority will now have 80% of the building occupied, Neal added. It was Neal who spearheaded the decades-long effort to rehab once-derelict Union Station with $103 million in state, local and federal money into a transportation hub with trains, buses, parking, retail and office uses.

“It’s another part of the good story Union Station tells,” Neal said.