NOTE: Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu.     

How universities, such as CSUSB, are helping to build a 500,000-person cybersecurity workforce
University Business
Nov. 22, 2021

A little more than a year ago, California State University at San Bernardino was selected by the National Security Agency to be the home of the Community National Center for Cybersecurity Education.

Part of its mission is to help train up the next wave of cybersecurity workers as quickly as possible. With a shortage of 500,000 professionals in the U.S. and continual threats from foreign actors and hackers, the task is daunting.

But Tony Coulson, Director of the Center and professor at CSUSB, says the nation’s colleges and universities are making progress. He and the Center are working in conjunction with more than 335 higher education institutions to help build that workforce.

“In the last six years, we’ve taken the number from about 15,000 students to about 100,000 students that are in cyber,” he says. “We’re trying to cut down the amount of time it takes to produce a cyber expert. We just received a grant award to work on apprenticeship in an earn-while-you-learn experience so that when you graduate, you’re not only a student that has a diploma but you’re a student with three years’ worth of work experience.”

He says one of the challenges in looking to the future is trying to predict the unpredictable. “In academia, when we’re trying to produce a workforce, we’re trying to teach students for jobs that might not even exist yet five years from now,” he says. “There’s new technologies. There’s the world of today, which I think we’ve got down, but it’s also about what the world of tomorrow is going to look like so that when these students graduate, they’re ready for it.”

Read the complete article at “How universities are helping to build a 500,000-person cybersecurity workforce.”

CSUSB art professor continues in role of resident judge for Netflix’s ‘Blown Away: Christmas’
Distractify
Nov. 19, 2021

Katherine Gray, CSUSB professor of art, continues her role as the resident judge for Netflix’s “Blown Away: Christmas,” the third season of the competition show between glass artists. Also appearing in the four-episode show that is now streaming on Netflix is CSUSB alumna Nao Yamamoto.

Read the complete article at “'Blown Away: Christmas' manages to keeps things in check with only two judges.”

Morongo elder and adjunct CSUSB professor dedicated to ‘saving and sharing’ cultures nearly lost
The Press-Enterprise/The Sun/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/Redlands Daily Facts
Nov. 19, 2021

Ernest Siva is a Serrano and Cahuilla elder, a bird singer and a teacher. He’s also a sharer of stories. Siva, who teaches the Serrano language at Cal State San Bernardino and honored with an honorary doctorate in 2009, and his wife, June, founded the nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center in Banning in 2003, named after his aunt, to help preserve Southern California’s Native American cultures.

Read the complete article at “Morongo elder dedicated to ‘saving and sharing’ cultures nearly lost.”

Right-wing extremists energized by acquittal of Rittenhouse, CSUSB professor says
The Orange County Register/Southern California News Group
Nov. 19, 2021

Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, was quoted in article about activists in Southern California expressing fear that the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse – the teenager who shot three men, killing two and wounding a third, during a protest last year in Wisconsin against police brutality – sets a dangerous example when it comes to weapon use and street violence during rallies and protests.

The verdict in the Rittenhouse trial has energized fringe far-right communities and white supremacists, said Levin.

“The fringe and white supremacist community has anointed Kyle Rittenhouse as a hero and a saint both in text and in memes,” he said. “We’re seeing extremist groups using these controversial hot button events as a means to get even more mainstream support.”

Levin expects Friday’s verdict will also “have the unfortunate effect of putting social justice protesters in danger.”

“I think it will also cause multiple parties to look at the perceived benefits of arming themselves in what would already be turbulent rallies,” he said. “The Rittenhouse trial highlights the aggression we’re seeing at all kinds of public events from rallies to school board meetings.”

Read the complete article at “Rittenhouse’s acquittal sets a dangerous example, Southern California activists say.”

CSUSB professor comments on extremists celebrating Rittenhouse’s acquittal
KPCC
Nov. 20, 2021

The acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager who killed to men and wounded another during a protest in 2020 against police brutality in Wisconsin, has emboldened right-wing extremists and white supremacists, says Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.

“It seems to be that the fringe world is taking this as a cue to engage and glorify vigilante violence, not just today, but going forward, and that is a terrible reverberative effect of this particular verdict,” Levin said.

Listen to the segment at “11:38 KPCC-FM (Radio).”

CSUSB professor asked about possible motives in Christmas parade tragedy in Wisconsin
Fox 11 Los Angeles
Nov. 22, 2021

Brian Levin, director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, was interviewed as part of the newscast's continuing coverage on Nov. 21 of a driver of an SUV plowing into a Christmas parade in Waukeska, Wis., killing at least five and injuring numerous people.

The interview is shown about 3 minutes and 50 seconds into the video segment, which aired not too long after the incident took place. Levin was asked for his initial reaction on whether domestic terrorism or another motivation played a role in the incident.

“There are a couple of clues, but here’s the thing. Now the funnel is always going to be wide open to making sure, if you have a mass casualty event, and there is at least something that could, not necessarily assertively, but could be connected to domestic terrorism, they’re going to involve (federal investigators),” Levin said. “To me, it sounds like there is a tilt where that is certainly on the table. They (local authorities) weren’t ruling it out, they brought it up without being questioned about it, and they noted the involvement of federal authorities.” He also added that they would be involved in any case with incident such as this.”

Other possible motives could be a mix of various ideologies, or a mental impairment, or some sort of physical condition, or because of alcohol or another intoxicant, or even accidental.

See the complete segment at “Suspect identified in Wisconsin Christmas parade tragedy.”

These news clips and others may be viewed at “In the Headlines.”