New program pays students to fight cyberthreats before they graduate
For Arizona State University students hoping to break into cybersecurity, Enterprise Technology has opened a door: six paid positions in the university’s Security Operations Center (SOC) offer students the opportunity to spend a year working on real cybersecurity cases.
Applications are now open for the new Junior Student SOC Analyst Program. Selected students will work-and-learn alongside ASU analysts, as well as mentors from Google, CrowdStrike and the Phoenix-based information technology consulting firm Hye Tech, as they investigate live security threats.
The program unfolds in four phases that each run 11 weeks. It starts with the fundamentals of cybersecurity, moving into live SOC operations and concluding with participants completing formal incident response work.
It’s a departure from the typical internship model. Instead of shadowing for a summer, students spend an academic year embedded in ASU’s SOC, while they build the skills, certifications and portfolio that will give them a competitive advantage in the future workforce.
Related: Learn more about cybersecurity at ASU by visiting getprotected.asu.edu
The impact of cybersecurity at ASU
“ASU’s SOC responds to security events across the university,” said Manager of Cybersecurity Operations Robert Kamilli. When an alert comes in — a phishing attempt, a compromised account, a suspicious login — analysts follow an incident response lifecycle: investigate what’s happening, loop in the relevant departments, cut off the attacker’s access and then work with affected users to shore up their defenses going forward.
The team runs around the clock, a 24/7 operation currently staffed by 13 junior and senior analysts. According to Kamilli, the SOC logged 6.8 billion security events and received over 18,000 security requests over a 12-month period.
Much of their work centers on protecting students, who are frequently targeted by phishing campaigns designed to steal personal information or financial details. Kamilli said the SOC treats those cases with urgency because a compromised student account can carry real financial and personal consequences — the kind of everyday threat that keeps a 24-hour security team on watch across ASU's campuses.
Three years ago, ASU brought all SOC functions in-house to better serve the university community. “We can be a lot more responsive in our approach with ASU community members and work in a more streamlined fashion,” Kamilli said. Moving the SOC center in-house also made it possible to turn it into a training ground for next-generation cybersecurity professionals.
Built with industry, not just for it
Exposure to the cybersecurity industry is deeply woven into the program, with Google, CrowdStrike and Hye Tech providing technical mentorship, guest lectures and project guidance throughout the year.
Kamilli said industry ties are especially valuable as hiring in cybersecurity shifts. “In this age of AI, we’re able to show students practical, real-world use cases of how ASU and vendors leverage AI, giving them a head start in the job market,” he said, noting that students will gain exposure to tools like OpenAI, Gemini, Claude and AWS’s Kiro through the program’s vendor relationships.
Students in the program will graduate with far more than a diploma. They’ll have industry certifications, a portfolio of real SOC work and hands-on fluency with the platforms enterprise security teams use every day. Program leaders expect graduates to be strong candidates for roles like security analyst, SOC analyst, junior incident responder and SOAR automation specialist, which are all entry points into a field that’s short on qualified talent and getting shorter.
How to apply
Interested students will need to pass a pre-screening assessment on networking and security fundamentals before being considered for the cohort. Apply today.