Author: Mindy Lange

We were honored to host Jim Gale, Lead Cyber Security Research Consultant at Wells Fargo Bank, on campus last week!

He shared with our cybersecurity students valuable insights into threat hunting practices and his research on the DPRK’s remote IT worker threat. Our students walked away with a deeper understanding of how global adversaries are evolving — and how industry leaders are responding.

Opportunities like this bridge the gap between classroom learning and the real-world challenges cyber professionals face every day.

 

A huge thank you to Jim for investing in the next generation of cyber defenders!

Our summer cyber lab project wrapped up with great success as our two student lab techs, Austin and Brandan, spent 10 weeks working full-time to bring the new grant-funded cyber range to life. They built out Proxmox servers, set up workstations, configured a Ubiquiti smart switch, and brought a new NAS online. Along the way, they also installed and tuned key services like Guacamole, Graylog, pfSense, and VaultWarden—giving the range powerful new capabilities. Beyond the technical build, they wrote documentation and created scripts so the environment is now ready to support fall courses and competition team training. Their work not only strengthened our infrastructure but also gave them invaluable, real-world experience in system administration, networking, and collaborative project work. Thanks to their efforts, the cyber range is now well-positioned to become a great resource for cybersecurity education at Messiah University. The grant also provides funding for student lab techs in the upcoming academic year, so look for more exciting news coming soon.