MARQUETTE, MI-- Northern Michigan University is holding a grand opening event for the Upper Peninsula Cybersecurity Institute Thursday.
It’s a hub on the Michigan Cyber Range—a secure internet separate from the real internet where you can experiment with cybersecurity issues.
Steve VandenAvond is NMU’s Vice President for Extended Learning and Community Engagement.
“For example, if a company thinks that they have a good solution for protecting their business data they can bring the solution to this secure internet and then have people try to hack into it, see if it actually works,” he says.
NMU will offer for-credit classes and non-credit training for certification. It’s the only institute in the U.P. and one of only six in the state.
VandenAvond says some of the training elements are online, and anyone on Northern’s EAN network can access them. He says that will allow young people to get the skills they need to work as cybersecurity experts and, as many of those jobs can be done remotely, stay in the region.
“We think that’s a good thing. We want to not only develop talent in the U.P.—we want people to stay here.”
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the Merit Network are partners in the program.
The grand opening takes place Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Northern Center, room 2202.
