IWTC Corry Station rolls out new cyber course

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Information Warfare Training Command Corry Station debuted a pilot course this summer aimed at strengthening cyber measures across the military.

The Cyber Defense Analyst-Host Course is designed to prepare joint cyber analysts with the basic methodologies required for defensive cyber and cyber-protection team operations. Students included service members E-1 to E-3 and Department of Defense, Coast Guard and government civilians.

Seventeen personnel attended the pilot course, which was facilitated June 3 to Aug. 2 on Naval Air Station Pensacola’s Corry Station.

“This is a major game changer for the information warfare community because it significantly reduces the training burden on cyber work centers and instead ensures we deliver to them Sailors who are already capable, confident and practiced in complex host analysis,” said Chief Petty Officer Nicholas Culver, Center for Information Warfare Training curriculum manager. “This course brings every Sailor who graduates from it to a new baseline level of competency, which would otherwise take years of on-the-job and cyber experience to reach.”

Trainees learn to perform risk management and threat mitigation, analyze architectures and traffic, conduct vulnerability assessments and security audits, monitor environments, respond to threat activity, develop and implement countermeasures, and carry out media and malware analysis.

“The implementation of the new (cyber mission force) courses here at IWTC Corry Station are laying the keel for defensive cyber operations throughout the joint cyber terrain,” said Chief Petty Officer Quintin Mengerink, a cyber warfare technician and Cyber Mission Force “C” school’s leading chief petty officer.

The first iteration of the new Cyber Defense Analyst-Host Course is set to convene Oct. 1 at Corry Station.