QUARTERLY REPORT #6

(FINAL PROJECT REPORT)

HAMPTON ROADS CYBERSECURITY EDUCATION, WORKFORCE, AND 

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE (HRCYBER)

“BRIDGING THE CYBERSECURITY TALENT GAP IN HAMPTON ROADS”

April 2018
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

1

Hampton Roads Cybersecurity Education, Workforce, and Economic

Development Alliance (HRCyber)

Quarterly Report #6

 April 2018

Program Lead(s): 

Principle Investigators – Dr. Brian Payne (PI) and Dr. Mary Sandy (Co-PI)

Project Manager – John Costanzo

Partners

College of William and Mary

ECPI University 

Norfolk State University

Old Dominion University

Thomas Nelson Community College

Tidewater Community College

City of Virginia Beach Public Schools 

Hampton City Public Schools

Newport News Public Schools

City of Hampton Economic Development 

Cyber Protection Resources

Hampton Roads Economic Development 

 Alliance

ISSA-HR

Jefferson Lab

Office of Commonwealth of Virginia

House of Delegate Ron Villanueva

Opportunity, Inc. 

Reinvent Hampton Roads

United States Navy

Virginia Space Grant Consortium 

Virginia Beach Economic Development

Virginia Beach Hotel Association

Virginia Beach Vision

360IT

ABNB FCU

AERMOR

Bon Secours Health System

Booz Allen Hamilton

C5BDI

CRTN Solutions (LLC)

G2-Ops

Hunting Ingalls, Newport News 

Shipbuilding

Klett Consulting

Obsidian Technology Group

Packet Forensics

Peregrine Technical Solutions, LLC.

Port of Virginia

SAIC

Sentara Healthcare

Sera-Brynn

StratasCorp Technologies

Towne Bank

Vostrum Holdings, Inc.

VNG Consulting
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

2

Table of Contents

Hampton Roads Profile..................................................................................................................................4

Project Background........................................................................................................................................5

Project Mission and Objective.....................................................................................................................5

Project Goals.....................................................................................................................................................6

Project Status Report ......................................................................................................................................7

Goal 1 Activities: ..............................................................................................................................................7

Monthly HRCyber meetings. ....................................................................................................................8

Articulation agreements. ..........................................................................................................................8

Virtual Lab. ....................................................................................................................................................9

Identify curricula revisions.........................................................................................................................9

Goal 2 Activities: ............................................................................................................................................10

Focus Groups. ............................................................................................................................................10

Survey of Cybersecurity Employers......................................................................................................10

Developing a Curriculum (DACUM). ...................................................................................................11

Survey of Cybersecurity Educators. .....................................................................................................11

Goal 3 Activities: ............................................................................................................................................12

Cybersecurity Counselors Workshop...................................................................................................12

Website Development.............................................................................................................................13

HRCyber Information Brochure. ............................................................................................................13

HRCyber Infographic. ..............................................................................................................................13

Train counselors & academic advisors on cybersecurity programs...........................................13

Goal 4 Activities: ............................................................................................................................................13

Cyber Video Series. ..................................................................................................................................14

Cyber Saturday at Thomas Nelson Community College...............................................................14

Cyber Saturday at Tidewater Community College ........................................................................14

High School Internships............................................................................................................................15

Cybersecurity Apprenticeships. ............................................................................................................15
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

3

Industry Internships....................................................................................................................................16

VBCPS 2017 STEM Robotics/Maker Expo/Cybersecurity Challenges. ........................................16

Virginia Beach Economic Development Cybersecurity Round Table Discussions.................17

2017 Regional Cybersecurity Conference.........................................................................................17

HRCyber Cybersecurity Workforce Summit.......................................................................................17

Other Highlights and Accomplishments: ................................................................................................18

Additional grant and funding opportunities. ....................................................................................18

New Academic Programs......................................................................................................................19

Other Cybersecurity initiatives/Achievements in the region........................................................20
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

4

Hampton Roads Profile

Located in a state with the second highest number of cybersecurity job advertisements in 

2015, Hampton Roads (HR) covers the 14-locality Virginia Beach-Norfolk Metropolitan 

Statistical Area (MSA) in southeast Virginia. Hampton Roads stretches from Williamsburg to 

Virginia Beach, and includes Ft. Eustis, NASA-Langley, the Norfolk Naval Base, the Port of 

Virginia, and Naval Air Station Oceana.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Community Profile: VA Beach-NorfolkNewport News MSA, Virginia, states that the region’s combined labor force is over 800,000 

and it is home to Newport News Shipbuilding, which is the Commonwealth of Virginia’s 

second largest employer after the Department of Defense. The region has over 120,000 

students enrolled in community colleges and public and private universities; there are over

20,000 graduates annually. 

According to the Virginia Beach Economic Development Defense Profile 

(https://www.yesvirginiabeach.com/Key-Industries/defense/Pages/default.aspx) there are

over 130,000 active duty and Department of Defense civilians working in the multiple military 

facilities spread across the region. Hampton Roads is also home to approximately 214,000 

veterans, 43,000 of whom are retired military. Finally, over 12,000 active duty personnel 

transition out of the military annually in the region. This presents opportunities for employers 

and educational institutions to move transitioning personnel and veterans into the 

cybersecurity field. 
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

5

The Hampton Roads Cybersecurity Education, Workforce, and Economic Development 

Alliance (HRCyber) offers an exciting opportunity to bring regional community assets 

together, an impressive group of organizations, including the region’s community colleges, 

three large public school districts, universities, the largest private employer, several small 

businesses, non-profit organizations, and the advocacy and support of local government 

economic development offices.

Project Background

In October 2016, Old Dominion University was awarded a grant by the U.S. Department of 

Commerce as one of five regional alliances and multi-stakeholder partnerships (RAMPS) to 

stimulate cybersecurity education and workforce development under the National Initiative 

for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) objectives. This grant established the Hampton Roads 

Cybersecurity Education, Workforce and Economic Development Alliance (HRCyber). 

Project Mission and Objective

Hampton Roads Cybersecurity 

Education, Workforce and Economic 

Development Alliance (HRCyber) is a 

partnership among educational 

institutions, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private 

employers focused on developing 

educational pathways from high school 

through community college to four year 

institutions and continued professional 

development providing a capable and fully trained cybersecurity workforce for the region. 

HRCyber aligns regional educational and skills development offerings to the workforce 

practices and activities of business and non-profit organizations within the Hampton Roads 

region with the specific goal of supporting local economic development and job growth 

via establishment of a multi-stakeholder alliance. This is achieved by addressing the 

workforce needs of cybersecurity employers by increasing the pipeline of students pursuing 

cybersecurity careers from high schools, community colleges and universities. 
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

6

Project Goals

HRCyber four goals are aligned with the NICE strategic goals of accelerate learning and 

skills development, nurture a diverse learning community and guide career development 

and workforce planning. 

The four HRCyber goals are; 

Goal 1: Coordinate educational pathways among public high schools, community 

colleges, and four year institutions

Goal 2: Gather information from the regional workforce about the knowledge and skills 

needed in cybersecurity programs and revise curricula as needed.

Goal 3: Coordinate academic programming among educational institutions and 

workforce

Goal 4: Strengthen the cybersecurity capabilities of the regional workforce
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

7

Project Status Report

Goal 1 Activities:

A central goal of this project is to coordinate cybersecurity educational pathways among

those educational institutions participating in HRCyber. The primary activities associated 

with this goal are:

 Conduct monthly steering committee meetings.

 Develop at least two articulation agreements between the community colleges and 

ODU and other partner institutions.

 Create a virtual lab.

 Identify curricula revisions.
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

8

Monthly HRCyber meetings. Since receiving this grant in October 2016, 

HRCyber has hosted a monthly meeting of partners and stakeholders to review the progress 

of the project and to highlight various accomplishments. Each month a teleconference 

was conducted for the steering committee with an average of 18 participants. Once a 

quarter a larger face-to-face meeting was held which was open to all HRCyber members or 

those interested in learning more about this project. An average of 40 attended these

quarterly meetings. Please visit the HRCyber webpage to view all of the meeting 

presentations under the Documents section.

Articulation agreements. Three articulation agreements were finalized,

allowing the transfer of the Associate of Applied Science in Information Systems 

Technology-Cybersecurity at Tidewater Community College, Thomas Nelson Community 

College and Northern Virginia Community College to the Old Dominion University Bachelor 

of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies with a cybersecurity major. These agreements are a 

model that other four-year universities can use to partner with these and/or other 

community colleges.

These three agreements were worked out 

after a series of meetings with transfer 

advisors and administrators from each

institution. The initial degree review 

showed that students would have needed 

to take approximately 170 hours to receive 

both the AAS and the BS in Interdisciplinary 

Studies with a cybersecurity major. After 

several meetings, faculty from the institutions crafted articulation agreements that would 

allow students to complete both degrees in 121-124 hours. In doing so, students will realize 

savings in credit hours (50), time (1.5 years) and tuition ($16,750).

The first articulation agreement was signed in 

February 2017 in a ceremony including the governor 

of Virginia, the secretaries of technology and 

education in Virginia, and state delegates from the 

Hampton Roads region. Using the same process, the 

articulation agreement between ODU and Thomas 

Nelson Community College was completed and 

signed in April 2017 with the Secretary of 

Technology. A third articulation agreement between 

ODU and Northern Virginia Community College was finalized and signed in November 2017.
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

9

For additional information on these articulation agreements please see the following links;

 TCC and ODU articulation agreement.

 TNCC and ODU Articulation agreement.

 NOVA and ODU articulation agreement.

Virtual Lab. The ODU 

cybersecurity virtual laboratory 

provides a secure and userfriendly environment for students 

to remotely engage in hands-on 

labs, which are a critical 

component of many 

cybersecurity courses. The 

enterprise Cisco routers, switches, 

and security appliances in the 

laboratory provide comprehensive protection for the laboratory as well as shield the 

campus network from accidental cyber-attacks. The high-end workstations, together with 

the Cisco networking gears, enables students to create not only virtual networks, but also 

real world network environments connected by physical routers and switches. Such 

processes emulate highly realistic cyber-attacks and defenses. 

Various hands-on laboratories, from entry-level labs to advanced, comprehensive labs, 

have been developed and deployed in the virtual laboratory, supporting the cybersecurity 

courses currently offered by ODU. To provide seamless access to the ODU virtual lab for 

HRCyber Alliance partners, the ODU ITS (Information Technology Services) has upgraded the 

equipment in the lab. ODU guest accounts have been created for a list of faculty at TNCC 

and TCC. The partners are able to utilize web browsers to log in their ODU guest accounts, 

and seamlessly access the virtual lab from their guest accounts. A demonstration session 

was conducted in May for the faculty of TNCC, and a comparable session is planned for

the TCC faculty. Feedback from all participants will be sought in order to expand the virtual 

lab and develop additional hands-on labs. Over 150 K-12 students used the lab as part of a 

series of cybersecurity summer camps and it was used by 100 ODU cybersecurity students to 

work on projects and other course work.

Identify curricula revisions. A workshop was held on April 7, 2017 with the 

educational partners to discuss tools available for reviewing their cybersecurity curricula to 

meet workforce needs. Information regarding the DACUM chart and the results of the 

cybersecurity surveys were provided for use in reviewing and revising curricula. 
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

10

Goal 2 Activities:

The second goal of HRCyber is to generate an understanding about the types of 

knowledge cybersecurity professional need in the Hampton Roads region across the board 

swath of cybersecurity careers. The primary activities associated with this goal are:

 Conduct focus groups with employers to determine their views on cybersecurity 

knowledge units and required skills.

 Survey regional employers to assess their cybersecurity workforce needs.

 Conduct Developing a Curriculum (DACUM) workshop and develop a DACUM chart to 

create workforce-driven curricula.

 Survey cybersecurity educational partners.

 Assess curricular revisions.

Focus Groups. Two focus groups were conducted in October 2016 during two 

separate regional cybersecurity conferences with approximately 40 representatives from 

employers and educational institutions. The results of these focus groups were used to shape 

the cybersecurity employers survey. 

Survey of Cybersecurity 

Employers. Using the results of the 

focus group as a guide, the ODU Social 

Science Research Center developed a 

draft survey and shared it with members 

of HRCyber. In November, 2016, after 

the survey was finalized, email invitations 

to complete the survey were sent to over 

200 businesses, educational partners and 

other contacts. Those initial contacts 

were also asked to forward the survey 

link to others who might have hiring 

needs in cybersecurity. 

Please use this link to see the complete survey results -

http://securitybehavior.com/hrcyber/doc/2017_Final%20Data%20Report.pdf

Thirty-four completed surveys were returned with the following results: 

• Two-thirds of the respondents came from for-profit companies.
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

11

• More than half of the respondents reported employing cybersecurity analysts, 

technicians, managers, engineers, and consultants, with most in the areas of consulting, 

cybercrime analysis, and technical support.

• Vacancies were primarily reported in the areas of consultants, analysts, and incident 

responders.

• Direct referrals and job seeker web services were the most effective recruitment 

methods.

• The positions that were most difficult to fill were engineering and analyst positions.

• Communication and problem solving skills were reported as the most critical in seeking 

cybersecurity personnel. Technological skills were not as important as these skills (or as 

important as writing skills and customer service).

• Communication skills were reported as those most difficult to find in an applicant,

followed by problem solving skills, penetration testing skills, and CISSP certification.

• Only 15% percent of the respondents indicated they were very familiar with 

cybersecurity education programs in the region.

• More than a third of the respondents rated the community colleges and universities as 

fair or poor in their cybersecurity education.

• Internships, apprenticeships, and co-ops were rated favorably by respondents.

• Employers rated students’ preparation in identification, protection, detection, 

responding, and recovery most often as fair or poor.

• New hires were rated as somewhat prepared in workplace competencies.

• Employers pointed to the need for communication skills, problem solving skills, and 

experiential learning.

Developing a Curriculum (DACUM). The DACUM panel meeting was held 

on December 13-14, 2016 in Hampton. Coordinated by Virginia Space Grant Consortium 

(VSGC) and hosted by Thomas Nelson Community College, the panel identified the tasks 

and duties required for cybersecurity professionals in the Hampton Roads region. Ten 

currently working cybersecurity professionals from different employment sectors met and 

discussed their daily work and tasks. Led by a certified DACUM Facilitator, the deliverable 

from the panel discussion will be a DACUM chart for early career cybersecurity 

professionals. The DACUM chart was finalized in February. This DACUM chart will inform and 

serve as a guide to curriculum development and other project components. Use this link to 

view the DACUM chart -

http://securitybehavior.com/hrcyber/doc/Cyber%20DACUM%20Chart%20final.pdf

Survey of Cybersecurity Educators. To examine how educational partners 

viewed cybersecurity education, surveys were sent to 34 educators in February 2017, and 14 

completed surveys were returned. In general, educators demonstrated the following 
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

12

patterns: risk management, debugging, network detection, and writing skills were less often 

defined as “very important” as were problem solving and communication. Skills rated as 

somewhat important or unimportant most often included certification, customer service, 

containers, and internal auditing. 

Areas most difficult to teach were software reverse engineering, penetration testing, and 

security clearances. Educators rated the quality of cybersecurity education as good or 

excellent most often for colleges. Educators were split in their ratings of public schools. In 

general, educators believed cyber students were prepared well for their jobs. Areas 

identified most often as “somewhat” or not prepared included incident response, 

information collection, risk management, threat investigation, security provision, business 

fundamentals, and oversight of cybersecurity work.

Goal 3 Activities:

The third goal of HRCyber is to improve the coordination of academic programming 

between educational institutions and the regional workforce. This involves developing 

stronger ties between each educational institution and connecting these institutions with 

the workforce.

The primary activities associated with this goal are;

 Conduct a Cybersecurity Counselor Workshop.

 Create the HRCyber homepage and informational brochure.

 Training faculty on the virtual lab.

 Train college counselors and academic advisors on cybersecurity programs.

Cybersecurity 

Counselors Workshop. 

The Cyber Counselor Workshop 

sponsored by the Virginia Space 

Grant Consortium (VSGC) was 

held at the ODU Peninsula Center 

in Hampton, Va. on February 23, 

2017. Twenty-seven school 

counselors, career coaches, Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers from the 

Hampton Roads region attended. During the program, presenters representing our higher 

education academic partners (Thomas Nelson Community College, Tidewater Community 

College, Norfolk State University, and Old Dominion University) provided information specific 

to their academic settings on education pathways leading to a career in cybersecurity. In 
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

13

addition, presenters from two of our industry partners (Sentara Healthcare and Newport 

News Shipyard) presented an excellent picture of the state of the cybersecurity job market 

in the local area. Local school partners from Newport News Public Schools, Hampton City 

Public Schools, and Virginia Beach Public Schools participated in a panel discussion 

outlining their school districts’ current state of cybersecurity courses in secondary schools. 

Workshop participants also took part in an engaging hands-on, Dumpster Diving/Identity 

Theft activity. Finally, participants provided suggestions for improving the five-part cyber 

security career awareness video series that VSGC is developing.

Website Development. In our efforts to generate awareness about the alliance 

and its activities a website was created. The address of the website is: 

http://securitybehavior.com/hrcyber/. Material on the website was updated on an as 

needed basis over the past quarter. Information on the website includes current events, 

news stories, links to alliance partners, cybersecurity resources, and a link to our HRCyber 

Workforce Needs Survey. Future updates will be provided as accomplishments occur. 

There have been over 5600 hits on this site since launching in December 2016.

HRCyber Information Brochure. As a result of various requests from our 

partners an information brochure was created which provides information on HRCyber’s 

mission and goals and it provides a detailed listing of the educational cybersecurity 

programs offered by several regional high schools, community colleges, and universities. 

Use this link to view the HRCyber information brochure -

http://securitybehavior.com/hrcyber/doc/HRCyberPromobroFINAL.pdf

HRCyber Infographic. To highlight HRCyber’s many achievements we 

developed an inforgraphic. This infographic is on the HRCyber website.

Train counselors & academic advisors on cybersecurity 

programs. Training for 30 college counselors and academic advisors was conducted 

during the Old Dominion University Advisor Network conference on September 29, 2017. 

Goal 4 Activities:

The fourth goal of HRCyber is to strengthen the cybersecurity capabilities of the regional 

workforce. The primary activities associated with this goal are;

 Develop and produce cybersecurity career awareness videos.

 Conduct Cyber Saturday series for high school students and parents.
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

14

 Host a cybersecurity workforce development summit in fall 2017.

 Provide Virginia Beach high school interns to regional cybersecurity employers.

 Provide internships and apprenticeships to regional cybersecurity employers. 

 Participate in regional cybersecurity summits and conferences.

Cyber Video Series. The Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC) developed five 

videos related to various cybersecurity career fields 

and workforce development. These videos are posted 

at www.vsgc.odu.edu/cyber and are available to the 

public. These videos were developed over several 

months and after 19 interviews were conducted with 

partners and key stakeholders. Partners interviewed for 

the video series included NIST, NASA Langley Research Center, Peregrine Technical 

Solutions, Packet Forensics, G2-Ops, AERMOR, Newport News Shipyard, Sentara Healthcare, 

and Langley Federal Credit Union. Each video is approximately 10 minutes in length. Topics 

include Cybersecurity – The Big Picture; Career Pathways; Accessing the Cybersecurity Job 

Field; The Cybersecurity of Things; and Protecting and Serving. Since this video series was 

launched it received over 4,000 visits.

Cyber Saturday at Thomas Nelson Community College 

On March 11th 2017, the VSGC, in collaboration with Thomas 

Nelson Community College (TNCC), hosted the first Cyber 

Saturday program for high school students and their parents, 

drawing 43 students and 22 parents. Students participated in 

such activities as Raspberry Pi from scratch, Foot Printing and 

Port Scanning, Exploring LAN Technologies, Cyber Physical 

Systems, Wi-Fi Password Cracking, and a drone competition. 

While the students were engaged in those activities, parents 

attended sessions led by the FBI, Sentara Healthcare, TNCC, 

and VSGC. Parents also participated in the dumpster 

diving/identity theft activity led by TNCC. 

Cyber Saturday at Tidewater Community College 

On March 25th, VSGC led a second Cyber Saturday event, hosted by Tidewater 

Community College (TCC) and held at the Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Virginia 

Beach. Forty-nine high school students and nineteen parents attended the event. Industry 

partners (Packet Forensics and Newport News Shipyard) and academic partners (TCC, Old 
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

15

Dominion University, and Virginia Beach 

Public Schools) led the students in such 

activities as Wi-Fi Password Cracking, 

Capture the Flag, Foot Printing, Port 

Scanning, and Cyber Physical Systems 

(including drones). Parents participated 

in a question-and-answer session with a 

representative from an industry partners 

(Sera-Brynn), and TCC representatives 

presented information about admissions 

procedures and cybersecurity programs 

at the community college. Afterwards, 

parents were able to join students in their classrooms. Volunteers from Virginia Beach Public 

Schools and the Computer Club at TCC, as well as others, helped with the event. 

High School Internships. Virginia 

Beach City Public Schools’ Technical and 

Career Education department working to 

create industry internships for high school 

students enrolled in Advanced Technology 

Center (ATC) classes for Cybersecurity & 

Network Administration, CISCO Networking, 

Computer Systems Technology, and Software 

& Game Development. These internships are 

professionally and financially supported by 

HRCyber. HRCyber provided funds for 20 

Virginia Beach City Public School high school 

students to participate in 30-hour cybersecurity 

internships in the cybersecurity field. Internship 

students are in their junior or senior year of high 

school; they have or are pursuing certification; 

and they come from one of three programs: 

Network Administration and Cyber Security, 

Cisco Network Engineering, and Computer 

Systems Technology. 

Cybersecurity Apprenticeships. HRCyber’s partners, Peregrine Technical 

Solutions and Tidewater Community College, have developed the first cybersecurity 

apprenticeship program in Virginia. They have two cyber apprentices, one in Alaska and 
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

16

one in Virginia, completing this program. They are completing their course work online with 

Tidewater Community College’s Associate of Applied Science in Information Systems 

Technology. HRCyber is working with other employers to expand this apprenticeship 

program within the region.

Industry Internships. Through the VSGC’s 

Commonwealth STEM Industry Internship program (CSIIP),

HRCyber is working with local cybersecurity employers to 

identify internship opportunities and to place interns within 

their companies. HRCyber is also assisting with CSIIP 

registrations and determining specific needs for targeted 

recruitment for ideal student candidates for the internships. 

A number of cyber security classroom and information 

sessions have been provided to students and faculty from 

Hampton Roads schools and others. Twenty-six interns were 

placed with various companies across the region, with 

eight students placed at Sentara Healthcare in a new internship partnership. 

VBCPS 2017 STEM Robotics/Maker Expo/Cybersecurity 

Challenges. 

HRCyber participated in the Virginia 

Beach City Public School (VBCPS)

2017 STEM Robotics/Maker

Expo/Cybersecurity Challenges on 

June 8, 2017. The STEM Trifecta is an 

initiative created by the Office of 

Technical and Career Education 

(TCE) that allows elementary through 

high school students, teachers, 

mentors, administrators, and industry 

and community partners to join together to create and promote STEM and 

entrepreneurship awareness through project-based learning activities. Over 1000 

elementary, middle school and high school students attended this year’s event. HRCyber 

partners provided judges for various challenges and awarded $500 to the winning school of 

the cybersecurity challenge. Two teams tied for first place in this challenge – Advanced 

Technology Center and Ocean Lakes High School. To learn more about this event please 

visit the STEM Tri-fecta website - http://www.vbstemtrifecta.com/

“The internship has been a 

fantastic avenue of 

experience! I have 

learned so much in the six 

months I have been there 

and I have become very 

confident in the roles of a 

security analyst.” 

ODU Intern with Sentara
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

17

Virginia Beach Economic Development Cybersecurity 

Round Table Discussions. One positive outcome of this project is the linking of 

multiple cybersecurity stakeholders within the region together at various meetings and 

events. Starting in November 2016, HRCyber participated in a series of round table 

discussions related to growing the cybersecurity workforce in the region. These discussions 

are hosted by the City of Virginia Beach Economic Development and the office of State 

Delegate Ronald Villanueva. As a result of these meetings several new employers became 

involved with HRCyber. 

2017 Regional Cybersecurity Conference. HRCyber partnered with 

Thomas Nelson Community College to host a regional cybersecurity conference on 

October 13, 2017 in Hampton. 

HRCyber Cybersecurity 

Workforce Summit. 

HRCyber held a Cybersecurity 

workforce and economic 

development summit on October 27, 

2017, in Virginia Beach with over 100 

attendees representing K-12 school 

districts, community colleges and 

universities, local, state and federal 

organizations, non-profit 

organizations, and cybersecurity 

employers. The keynote speaker was 

State Senator Frank Wagner. The purpose of the summit was to highlight the achievements 

of HRCyber and its partners and to provide information to the public on cybersecurity 

education programs and employment in the region. A series of panels were held focusing 

on educational pathways, internships and apprenticeships, industry and educational survey 

results, Virginia Space Grant Consortium activities associated with HRCyber, and finally a 

workforce and economic development panel. The program for this summit can be viewed 

using this link - http://securitybehavior.com/hrcyber/doc/Summit%20Program.pdf
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

18

Other Highlights and Accomplishments:

Additional grant and funding opportunities. As result of the positive 

impact HRCyber Alliance is having across the region, over $3.2 million in additional grants 

funds were awarded to Old Dominion University and additional funding opportunities are 

being developed across all educational institutions. 

A sub-group was merged with HRCyber to prepare a proposal for state funding via the Go 

Virginia Initiative. This group consists of HRCyber partners and is looking at partnering with 

Southwest Virginia to expand cybersecurity workforce development initiatives across the 

state. The proposal was approved by the Go Virginia Region 5 committee in November 

2017 for full funding, $1.28 million for two years, and was submitted to the Go Virginia State 

Board for final consideration of funds. The Go Virginia State Board approved this project 

along with four others during their December 12, 2017 meeting. The HRCyber Co-Lab was 

approved for two years of funding totaling $1,285,426 – $642,713 per year. This funding will 

allow HRCyber to continue to develop and expand the cybersecurity ecosystem within 

Hampton Roads and other regions across Virginia and to formalize the organization. The 

project will focus on four pillars – outreach through a Virginia Cyber Trail which will allow 

collaboration between educators, researchers, employers across Virginia; innovation 

through industry collaborations by connecting industry to academic and federal labs and 

technologies to accelerate innovation and technology; commercialization through the 

Cyber Arena that will be a highly-advanced collaboration hub providing a virtual 

environment for stakeholders to test and analyze cybersecurity techniques and new 

technologies; and jobs creation and workforce development through Digital Entrant 

programs that take current internships and apprenticeships and expand them to 

accelerate placement of transitioning military and graduates to open cybersecurity jobs. 

Please use this site to see the Go Virginia press release regarding this and the other 

approved projects – http://govirginia.org/2017/12/go-virginia-board-approves-first-grants/. 

Old Dominion University faculty also submitted proposals and were awarded grants related 

to national cybersecurity initiatives, including the following: 

• The Engineering Management and Systems Engineering researchers were awarded 

$115,000 through The National Security Agency Cybersecurity Core Curricula 

Development Grant to develop a course in cybersecurity risk management to support 

the President’s Cybersecurity National Action Plan.

https://www.odu.edu/news/2017/6/nsa_grant#.WjKNh2eWypo 

• The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering was awarded a three-year, 

$360,000 NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF REU) program. This grant will 

provide 10 undergraduate students from across the country with research opportunities 
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

19

in cybersecurity during the 10-week summer program. 

https://www.odu.edu/news/2017/4/nsf_undergrad_resear#.WjKM7GeWypo

• Old Dominion University was awarded a multi-year National Science Foundation grant of 

$500,000 to address cybersecurity workforce shortages through increased educational 

and training opportunities. This grant will continue some of the work started with 

HRCyber’s emphasis on developing articulation agreements and educational pathways 

to assist in filling the multitude of open cybersecurity positions within the region and 

state. https://www.odu.edu/about/odu-publications/insideodu/2017/11/30/topstory2

• Old Dominion University was awarded a five-year National Science Foundation grant of 

$1,000,000 to provide 18 scholarships to low-income students in the cybersecurity 

program as part of the S-STEM Track program.

http://www.odu.edu/news/2018/4/cybersecurity_grant?utm_source=homepage&utm_

medium=interactive&utm_campaign=HP-Slider#.WstxEWeWypo

Old Dominion also has two NSF grants pending. 

• The Scholarship for future workforce in information security, analytics and 

entrepreneurship is a 5 year proposals totaling $1,000,000. This project will create a 

scholarship fund for up to 60 students per year ($10,000 each) pursuing Information 

Systems and Technology or Enterprise Cybersecurity degree programs.

• SaTC (Education): An interdisciplinary examination of cybersecurity pathways 

between regional higher education institutions is a 2 year project totaling $300,000. 

This project will study and evaluate the success of the NICE RAMPS grant (HRCyber) 

and further its efforts to strengthen the pathways established as part of the NICE 

RAMPS grant.

New Academic Programs. Starting in fall 2017 Old Dominion University began 

to offer two new Bachelor of Science Interdisciplinary Studies majors in cybersecurity –

cybercrime and cyber operations. In addition to these two new majors, ODU also started a 

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration–Information Technology, with a focus on 

enterprise cybersecurity. ODU is also working on approval for a Master of Science 

Cybersecurity degree with the intent of offering this degree program in fall 2018.
Quarterly Report #6 April 2018

20

Other Cybersecurity initiatives/Achievements in the region. 

Regent University opens a state-of-art cyber range training center in a partnership with 

Cyberbit Ltd., in October 2017. https://www.regent.edu/news-events/regent-universitylaunches-state-art-cyber-range-training-center-cyberbit/

Thomas Nelson Community Colleges receives designation as a National Center of 

Excellence in Cyber Defense Education in August 2017. http://tncc.edu/news/thomasnelson-community-college-receives-designation-national-center-excellence-cyber-defense

For additional information on HRCyber accomplishments please visit the webpage at 

http://securitybehavior.com/hrcyber/ or contact Dr. Brian Payne (bpayne@odu.edu) or 

John Costanzo (jcostanz@odu.edu).