HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall University’s Institute for Cyber Security will hold a training opportunity for individuals interested in learning more about operational technology.
The training will take place April 14–15 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The two-day event aims to offer hands-on training to help leaders protect the systems that keep communities, municipalities, campuses, and private businesses running.
Marshall University Institute for Cyber Security Executive Director Alexandria Donathan spoke on MetroNews “Talkline” recently about the event. She said it will be educational for those interested in cybersecurity and why it matters.
“This is to educate not only the growing workforce but the current workforce, where cybersecurity hasn’t been something followed on,” Donathan said. “And to an example to why they should care, I think they had the same mindset in Little Town, Massachusetts when that water facility was hacked by Chinese actors, so you don’t care until you have to care type of thing, so we’re trying to make sure people don’t have to care but they’re informed.”
The event will empower technology and operations leaders to identify risks, apply governance frameworks such as IEC 62443 and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and strengthen resilience across physical and digital systems.
Donathan said attacks can come from a variety of sources, especially with the growth of artificial intelligence, but she noted that more sophisticated, long-term attacks are often carried out by nation-state actors.
“I would say the longer more methodical attacks defiantly would belong to a nation state actor given the amount of resources they have by their nation, but I can’t say it’s one more than the other,” she said. “There is a lot of good unclassified reporting by CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, about Chinese nation state actors ramping up over the last few years within our critical infrastructure.”
During the two-day training, participants will focus on five critical infrastructure sectors: energy, water and wastewater, transportation, healthcare, and finance.
Donathan said the goal is to ensure participants understand how to protect these sectors, especially as society becomes increasingly digital.
“As you make things easier for you in a digital environment, you’re also introducing risks, that’s where we’re trying to educate the current workforce, to understand the risks that they are administering into their environment and then properly help segment and protect that as we move out,” she said.
