The NET+ Splunk Community Call focused on how universities are using Splunk to build and manage student-powered Security Operations Centers (SOCs). During the session, we heard from three different higher education institutions about how these student-led initiatives not only provide valuable hands-on cybersecurity experience but also enhance campus security.

Our speakers and the topics they covered:

  • Stacy Cahill, CISO, UMBC: Shared insights on the early stages of building a student-powered SOC, including developing playbooks and creating Splunk dashboards for detecting anomalies like Abnormal User and Abnormal IP activity.
  • Craig Woolley, CIO, LSU: Talked about LSU’s student-run SOCs, a collaborative effort across Louisiana to secure higher education institutions, offering students hands-on experience while protecting 25 campuses and expanding to 38 by summer.
  • Vito Rocco, CISO, UNLV: Shared how the Splunk Academic Alliance program at UNLV helps students gain real-world cybersecurity skills, bridging the gap between classroom learning and practical application.

Meeting assets:

  1. Presentation - NET+ Splunk Community Call 2-12 Presentation.pdf
  2. Recording - NET+ Splunk Community Call 2-12 Recording.mp4

Announcements and links shared during the call:

  1. Upcoming events
    1. Internet2 CommEx (Anaheim) - April 28 - May 1, 2025
    2. EDUCAUSE Cybersecurity and Privacy Professionals Conference (Baltimore, MD): May 19 - 21
      1. Call for Proposals open until Feb 18, 11:59 pm ET
  2. NET+ Splunk Wiki
  3. Splunk Academic Alliance Program

If you have any questions or would like to share your campus Splunk implementation with your peers, please feel free to contact Nidhi Yadav (nyadav@internet2.edu).


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