Cyber security has been lurking as a major issue across the country and worldwide.

The 2016 election cycle was riddled with talk of hacking. And after the election, U.S. intelligence agencies determined that Russian hacks interfered with the election.

Whether it's high profile companies being hacked or government information being leaked, most companies and officials do not know how vulnerable they actually are -- most do not even know when they have been hacked.

Despite all the attacks, the cyber security field is currently experiencing a shortage of professionals and practitioners, with more than 250,000 positions remaining unfilled in the U.S. workforce alone.

Roberto J. Mejias, assistant professor/director for the Center for Cyber Security Education and Research at the Hasan School of Business at Colorado State University-Pueblo, is doing what he can to fix that.

"More than 90 percent of organizations have been hacked or compromised, and only 20 percent of them know that they have," Mejias said.

CSU-Pueblo is one of only six colleges in Colorado with the NSA-CAE certification. Others include Colorado School of Mines, Colorado Technical University, United States Air Force Academy, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and the University of Denver.

The CSU-Pueblo center started about a year and a half ago, Mejias said. The program currently has 20-25 students.

"Only 5 percent of universities and colleges have the National Security Agency-Center for Academic Excellence certification. So we are very proud of that," Mejias said.

CSU-Pueblo had to set up the Center for Cyber Security Education and Research in order to maintain the designation.

"We've gotten a lot of support from our provost Rick Kreminski and our Dean Bruce Raymond. They gave me the resources and the time to do this," Mejias said.

Students in the Cyber Security Emphasis Program can earn a bachelor's of science diploma. They can also earn a NSA-CAE Cyber Defense certificate from the NSA.

"We teach a whole range of technical cyber security techniques," Mejias said.

The program looks at cyber security threats and attack vectors, cyber security defense-in-depth techniques and adversary and vulnerability assessment.

Students also learn about the design of network security, threat risk models and risk mitigation strategies, cryptography, a range of computer forensic tools and the development of threat-vulnerability asset grids.

Students can also participate in the National Cyber League, which allows students to compete in cyber security challenges with their counterparts at several universities. CSU-Pueblo students have finished in the top 15 percent of about 2,700 competitors. Students also participate in field projects that uncover vulnerabilities in cyber defense for local businesses.

Mejias said the center serves an important purpose in a field that is predicted to have a shortfall of 1.5 million professionals by the year 2019.

He said educational institutions must play an increasingly active role in training and educating the next generation of cyber security professionals.

"Our center is targeting high school students and college students, freshman, to look into the field of cyber security," Mejias said.

Mejias said to most high school and college kids and most uninformed observers, computer information systems is just programming.

"It's like medicine. You have programming, you have database analysis, you have web design, you have cyber security. You have all these different fields that they can go into," Mejias said.

The center is working to obtain grants from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security. Mejias said CSU-Pueblo is one of 15 schools nationwide participating with the University of Arizona's cyber security program for a large Department of Homeland Security Grant.

"I think we have a pretty good chance. We have very unique demographics and technical aspects here," he said.

Mejias noted that CSU-Pueblo is an Hispanic Serving Institution.

"We have 47 percent Hispanic and minority students on our CSU-Pueblo campus," he said.

"The incoming freshman class is 55 percent minority. That's African American, Native American, Hispanic. So we are truly an HSI school in the true sense of the word."

Mejias said CSU-Pueblo also has good technical assets.

CSU-Pueblo also has Homeland Security Studies, which is a minor program composed of an 18 credit hour workload. Students can also receive a certificate in the field.

"Technically, we have two entities here that basically are able to do cyber security. That's why we got this NSA-(CAE) certification on the first go around," Mejias said.

"NSA-CAE does not look at minority status. They look only at technical ability in cyber security, and we have that. The Department of Homeland Security and any state grants look at both HSI and technical abilities; we have the ability to do all of that."

Mejias said many universities and state organizations still don't understand the importance of cyber security education.

"They just don't get it. To their own peril. This program works closely with NSA Department of Homeland Security and other intelligence agencies to give students a top-level cyber security education," Mejias said.

"Most businesses are too busy with day-to-day operations and increasing sales performance to be concerned with cyber security issues and vulnerabilities.

"These are exciting times if you are interested in cyber security. And students should be cognizant that there are wonderful career opportunities in cyber security."

anthonym@chieftain.com