Tag Archive for: Cybersecurity

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U. S. Rep. Richard Neal celebrates $3 million for Cybersecurity center at Springfield Union Station

MASSLIVE: SPRINGFIELD — U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal announced a $3 million earmark Tuesday funding the Cybersecurity Center of Excellence at Springfield Union Station.

The money comes through congressionally directed spending from the Department of Education. Neal included funding for this project in the fiscal year 2023 spending bill that was signed into law on Dec. 29. It’s one of 15 projects totaling $20.4 million Neal included for the district in that funding package.

Back in October, Neal, D-Springfield, and others welcomed a $1.46 million state grant for the center.

“The threats facing our nation at both the national and local level are significant, and having the cutting-edge technology capable of countering these threats is of the utmost importance,” Neal said in a statement. “Union Station has become a world-class intermodal transportation hub for the Greater Springfield community, and it will now serve as home to a state-of-the-art cybersecurity training center. This will give the brightest young minds in our region the resources they need to combat these threats, ultimately expanding the region’s skilled workforce and shoring up the resiliency of our cybersecurity in western Massachusetts and beyond.”

The center will be an essential piece of the Massachusetts Cybersecurity Consortium and will give students seeking a career in the growing cybersecurity field with professional opportunities and hands-on training, the news release said.

That consortium includes Springfield Technical Community College and other area institutions including Bay Path University.

Read more on MassLive here: https://www.masslive.com/news/2023/01/u-s-rep-richard-neal-celebrates-3-million-for-cybersecurity-center-at-springfield-union-station.html

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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.

Read more on MassLive here: https://www.masslive.com/business/2022/10/springfields-union-station-will-be-site-of-cybersecurity-center-of-excellence-with-15-million-state-grant.html
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