Colorado Springs, Colorado – The National Cybersecurity Center (NCC) is pleased to announce the official launch of Project PISCES, dedicated to improving network monitoring support for local jurisdictions in Colorado as well as the cyber workforce pipeline.
PISCES is a program originally developed and adopted in the State of Washington by the private industry firm, Critical Insight, founder Mike Hamilton. Hamilton’s background in state and local cybersecurity programs drove his desire to create more free and low-cost cyber options for under-resourced local governments, as well as more opportunities for cybersecurity students to gain real world experience. PISCES is supported by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Pacific Northwest National Labs.
Colorado is the first state outside of Washington to adopt PISCES into its Whole of State strategy for developing more free and low-cost resources to local governments. Local governments that are eligible for PISCES include small counties, municipalities, special districts, school districts and other critical infrastructure that do not have significant insight into their network security. These local jurisdictions are connected with students at Colorado higher education institutions for an extra set of eyes on their networks.
“We are proud and excited to advance PISCES in partnership with the National Cyber Center in Colorado and with the Metropolitan State University of Denver as our lead academic institution in the state,” shared PISCES-INTL’s Executive Director Steve Stein. “Our new partners in Colorado are innovative in building on the concepts and infrastructure PISCES has developed thus far, providing new capabilities and models for this crucial program that can be shared broadly within PISCES as we expand to other states.”
Metro State University (MSU) is serving as the lead education institution as part of its comprehensive strategy to help students gain real-world cyber experience through a cyber range, threat hunting opportunities and network monitoring through PISCES.
“The Cybersecurity Center at MSU Denver is delighted to partner with PISCES as the lead university for Colorado and the National Cybersecurity Center in Colorado Springs to bring this ground-breaking training to the State of Colorado,” said Richard MacNamee, Director of MSU’s Cybersecurity Center. “Trainees will now be able to acquire critical entry-level skills on their pathways to becoming Security Operations Center (SOC) analysts learning best practices in terms of identification and investigation of possible threats and, how to escalate to the appropriate authorities with meaningful recommendations – all using “real-world” data. We encourage other institutions of higher education to connect with us sooner rather than later in order to be able to leverage this tremendous experiential learning opportunity.”
PISCES complements the other services the NCC has been developing for Colorado’s local governments and students, like the Colorado State Cyber Range dedicated to providing an introduction to cyber for young people and a chance to upskill for professionals already in the field.
“This program is an exciting example of the many resources the NCC is working to bring to Colorado communities to improve our state’s and region’s cybersecurity posture,” concluded Harry D. Raduege, Jr., Lieutenant General, USAF (Ret.), CEO of the NCC.
Learn more about PISCES and the cyber range available to all Coloradans on the NCC’s Colorado Cyber Resource Center website at https://Colorado-crc.com.
About the National Cybersecurity Center
The National Cybersecurity Center (NCC) is a non-profit organization established for cyber innovation and awareness. Established in 2016 from the vision of United States Senator from Colorado John Hickenlooper, in coordination with several people from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) and the community, the NCC serves both public and private organizations and individuals through training, education and research. Discover NCC at cyber-center.org.
