MSU Incident Response - October 2023
Seven members of the Montana National Guard’s Defensive Cyber Operations Element (DCOE) responded April 20, 2023, to assist the Montana State University in Bozeman after a cyber-attack that occurred April 19.
The request for assistance came through the Montana Department of Emergency Services and the DCOE was deployed to assist MSU’s Incident Command with helping to identify and mitigate additional vulnerabilities.
The cyber-attack also affected the Great Falls campus, so two DCOE members were moved from Bozeman to Great Falls for onsite assistance.
The DCOE team defends against local attacks on Department of Defense networks. The governor can also call upon the 10-person team to assist with defensive cyber operations during an incident that affects the state, when civilian assets are unavailable or exhausted.
“The Montana National Guard stands ready and prepared to assist the citizens of Montana with the initial response when cyber incidents affect infrastructure,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Carroll Benjamin, a senior information protection specialist with the Montana National Guard.
Benjamin said the team was able to isolate the threat to prevent further spread of the attack to other systems and identify the source of the attack which will help to reduce future vulnerability.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” said Lt. Col. Antonio Lecce, G-6 Mission Command Supervisor, “Although the DCOE can help following an attack, we would rather do a cyber resilience review before an attack occurs to deter any cyber incidents.”
“It can be a real eye opener for organizations to realize the scope of vulnerabilities that can be exploited if good cyber security practices are not implemented,” Lecce said.
Lecce said the Montana National Guard has openings for people with an aptitude and interest in cyber security and will provide training and certifications, as well as hands on experience in exercises and real-world scenarios, that can be marketable for civilian employment.
In October 2022, during Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week, CyberSeek.org announced new data which revealed that for the 12-month period ending in September 2022, employers listed 769,736 openings for cybersecurity positions or jobs requiring cybersecurity skills.
The Montana National Guard has units in 17 communities across Montana. If you are interested in joining our team, please call 406-324-3255.