Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa is using a half a million dollar federal grant to expand its cybersecurity training.
“We hope to be able to put more students through the program and get more students to actually graduate into the technical field,” says Andy Alderson, an associate professor of cybersecurity and systems administration at IHCC.
The college already offers an associate degree in cybersecurity and systems administration. Alderson says the program is being restructured, so students could earn an associates degree in I-T fundamentals within nine months. “Part of the grant is to help us develop a second learning track after they complete the nine months,” Alderson says. “They’ll have a choice of either going to the systems administrator track or the cybersecurity track.”
The cybersecurity curriculum will be wide ranging. “We’re going to cover things like cyber law and ethics, digital forensics, server configurations and hardening — making those harder to infiltrade,” Alderson says, “how data transmits from place to place and being able to identify that and finding anomalies in it.
Alderson is helping to plan so-called “Capture the Flag” events at area high schools, giving students a chance to compete to solve computer security puzzles and — hopefully — get them interested in pursuing a degree. “Give a little insight into what it means to be a cybersecurity professional, trying to mitigate some of these malicious attacks,” Alderson says.
Government reports indicate there were 700,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the United States this summer and there will be a 20% increase in the number of cybersecurity jobs by 2025. Alderson expects to begin offering the retooled cybersecurity program at Indian Hills in the fall of 2026.