New Cybersecurity Lab opens as collaboration between IS, computer science

by Jen Hatton | Nov 19, 2015

Several dozen faculty and staff gathered Nov. 13 for the grand opening of the lab, located on the second floor of Express Scripts Hall.

UMSL’s Cybersecurity Lab opened Nov. 13 on the second floor of Express Scripts Hall. The lab is a collaboration between the Department of Information Systems and Department of Math and Computer Science. Pictured (from left) are Jianli Pan, Dinesh Mirchandani, Cezary Janikow, Haiyan Cai, Sanjiv Bhatia, Chancellor Tom George, Provost Glen Cope, Dean Ron Yasbin, Shaji Khan and Dean Charles Hoffman. (Photo by Jen Hatton)

Several dozen faculty and staff gathered Nov. 13 for the grand opening of the Cybersecurity and IT Innovation Lab at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

The lab, located on the second floor of Express Scripts Hall, is a collaboration between the Department of Information Systems in the College of Business Administration and the Department of Math and Computer Science in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“The creation of this lab has been an ongoing effort between the two colleges,” said Charles Hoffman, dean of the College of Business Administration. “In addition, we’ve received help from Information Technology Services on campus, friends and donors.

“With this learning studio setup, this lab will provide a sandbox where the students can safely learn and practice things like ethical hacking and penetration testing, and have an opportunity to discover and understand the various types of threats to businesses. This will be a centerpiece for the two departments.”

College of Arts and Sciences Dean Ron Yasbin said this is an exciting partnership.

“This is a really wonderful time for interdisciplinary collaboration and will give our students a wide range of knowledge and skills,” he said.

Shaji Khan, assistant professor of information technology, spearheaded the creation of the lab and establishment of the new Cybersecurity Certificate program at UMSL. The 18-credit-hour undergraduate certificate program combines courses from both IS and computer science.

UMSL will hold its first cybersecurity conference Nov. 20. The conference, STLCyberCon 2015, is a unique conference on cybersecurity that features presentations by distinguished speakers on a variety of topics bridging theory and practice. STLCyberCon 2015 runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is free and open to UMSL students and the public. Visit here to register.