Innovative Shared SOC Model for Statewide Higher-Ed Cyber Protection and Talent Development

An Innovative Solution

TekStream spearheaded a novel public-private partnership with Splunk and LSU to establish a co-managed, student-run Security Operations Center, or SOC, on LSU’s flagship campus in Baton Rouge. The SOC is based on TekStream’s MDR service that uses Splunk’s SIEM/SOAR software deployed on AWS.

This approach combines the best of ad-hoc, extemporaneous threat hunting in SIEM, as the SOAR environment is guided and structured with pre-defined steps for particular threats and TekStream-developed playbooks ensure consistency in execution.

LSU students from all disciplines will be recruited to work on the SOC with continuous support and training from TekStream through its MDR service. This allows LSU to defray costs associated with SOC operations and provides students with valuable experience and marketable skills upon graduation. Additionally, financial incentives in the unique agreement incentivize all parties to excel at detecting and defending against cyber threats.

The program will expand across the state’s education system to protect 40 institutions of higher learning from cyberattacks through shared resources and threat intelligence. SIEM instances are separate and available directly to each school with a dedicated Splunk Cloud stack as the source for alerts and as a resource for individual school visibility to assess, triage and investigate alerts locally.

Training Tomorrow’s Cybersecurity Leaders

As part of this innovative model, TekStream experts will train LSU students to manage the LSU SOC using Splunk technology. Students will be trained at the same level as TekStream employees on cyberattacks, analysis, network defense, policy and escalation, and real-time response tactics to actual incidents, gaining valuable experience in professional roles that are in very high demand.

Key Successes

• TekStream stood up a top-tier, 24/7 co-managed, and student-run SOC within three months at LSU’s Baton Rouge and Shreveport campuses with an emphasis on a standardized procedure for onboarding and automated incident response in a multi-tenant SOAR environment.
• The remaining 40 campuses are onboarded to 24/7 co-managed, student-run SOC within 18 months.
• TekStream and LSU are developing the next generation of cyber engineers. TekStream trains and works closely with students as their skills evolve to staff the SOC to a greater degree.
• TekStream developed a unique and flexible pricing model to fit this bold cyber defense initiative. A university-wide agreement offers volume purchasing discounts and incentivizes students to hone their cyber protection skills.
• TekStream created a highly collaborative and transparent ecosystem with the governance needed to satisfy state mandates and meet funding requirements.

Customer: LONI – Louisiana Optical Network Infrastructure

Industry: Higher Education, State University Infrastructure