Two Virginia Western professors are contributing to the emerging field of cyberbiosecurity, and their recent collaboration with colleagues has resulted in published work aimed at shaping an educated workforce.
Heather Lindberg, associate professor of biology and Biotechnology Program head, and B Bagby, assistant professor of computer science and information technology and head of the Center for Cybersecurity Education, contributed to “Cyberbiosecurity Workforce Preparation: Education at the Convergence of Cybersecurity and Biosecurity,” published in The NACTA Journal, which is a professional refereed journal published by the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA).
Their fellow authors were Samson Adeoye, Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education, Virginia Tech; Anne Brown, Research and Informatics, University Libraries, Virginia Tech; Feras Batarseh, Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech; and Eric Kaufman, Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education, Virginia Tech.
This grant-funded work was a collaboration with faculty at Virginia Tech in response to the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) Call for Proposals on Cybersecurity Workforce Development. “[Dean of STEM] Amy White had worked with Eric Kaufman at VT before and connected us,” said Bagby.
The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative is a federal program seeking to alleviate the cybersecurity workforce shortage. The program is looking for initiatives that will create a more diverse and equitable cybersecurity workforce, with a focus on underserved communities. This specific outreach was an opportunity for organizations to submit proposals to develop and implement new cybersecurity education and training programs.
“Our work was focused on larger-scale cyberbiosecurity, and beginning to explore what that really means in terms of creating an educated workforce,” said Lindberg. The Virginia Western and Virginia Tech authors surveyed stakeholders in education, private industry and state agencies in Virginia.
They explored the need to design a variety of educational modalities, including comprehensive courses and short modules, that will reach the agriculture and life sciences workforce. Their study gave insights into concerns at the points where information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) meet.
Cyberbiosecurity is such a new field that educational opportunities are limited. The researchers found that collaborative ventures will be key to fulfilling that need, as evidenced by their own interdisciplinary research. Their work also stressed the importance of a partnership between academia and industry professionals.
“Many of the things we talked about or thought about as we did this work revolved around intersections such as vertical farming, or large-scale greenhouses, that are in agriculture but also incorporate a huge amount of technology to keep systems running,” Lindberg said.
