Cybersecurity Center for Business

There has been a staggering increase in cybersecurity attacks, particularly against small and medium-sized businesses and organizations in rural America. Many small businesses cannot recover from such attacks – 50 percent will close within six months of an attack. There is also a cybersecurity workforce shortage with more than 6,000 open positions in Wisconsin alone.

Through the WiSys U.S. National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) grant, our goal in the pilot project, CyberFirst Coop, is to address these issues in rural Wisconsin’s small agricultural businesses with a focus on farmers. A team of UW-Whitewater faculty and staff and partners will employ a student-based cybersecurity team to provide a broad-based assessment of small, rural agricultural businesses (farms) information systems, including determination of their vulnerability to security breaches such as ransomware attacks. We will assess cyber-readiness of agricultural organizations and help learners and employees develop their cybersecurity skills to add new cybersecurity talent to the pipeline.

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is supported by the Department of Defense (DoD) and represents a unified standard for implementing cybersecurity across the defense industrial base (DIB), which includes more than 300,000 companies in the supply chain. The Wisconsin Execution of Cybersecurity Understanding, Remediation, and Education for Defense (WISECURED) grant promotes CMMC best practices to mitigate compromises of sensitive defense information located on contractors' information systems.

The WISECURED program provides:

• Awareness
• Self-assessment of a firm’s cybersecurity level by identifying the gaps in security
• A plan for attaining the official CMMC

Defense suppliers at all levels must meet cybersecurity defense standards by 2024, and the CCB is a tremendous resource to help Wisconsin’s 2,500 discrete defense suppliers reach compliance throughout the state’s supply chain. We help those participating contractors to:

• Identify critical gaps in cybersecurity measures
• Learn how to make systemic improvements to a comprehensive cybersecurity plan
• Take advantage of UW-Whitewater’s outreach services and deep experience with learning technologies
• Align with Fincantieri Marinette Marina and Oshkosh Corporation to obtain CMMC compliance and certification
• Develop strong system security measures and corresponding plan of action
• Implement a robust cybersecurity platform statewide and nationally

WISECURED information sheet [PDF] »

CCB DoD introduction »