Splunk Powers UNLV’s Student-SOC to Strengthen Campus Cybersecurity, Drive Innovation, and Help Fill the Cybersecurity Workforce Gap

UNLV leverages Splunk to enhance cybersecurity, provide real-world student experience, and improve operational efficiency

Splunk Inc., the cybersecurity and observability leader, today announced the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is raising the bar for cybersecurity education and campus security by integrating Splunk’s solutions into its student-powered Security Operations Center (SOC). Faced with the challenge of securing a large university environment with limited resources, UNLV turned to Splunk to help safeguard its campus and equip students with in-demand cybersecurity skills.

UNLV’s SOC, powered by Splunk Enterprise Security and Splunk Cloud Platform, has remediated over 600 vulnerabilities, including nearly 100 critical ones, in less time and with greater accuracy - dramatically increasing visibility across its digital landscape. This powerful initiative stemmed from UNLV implementing the Splunk Academic Alliance program, gives UNLV students critical hands-on experience in security operations and allows them to make real-time contributions to the university's cybersecurity posture. The program provides the training and certifications needed for UNLV students to operate the SOC.

Addressing Cybersecurity with a Student-Driven Approach

UNLV serves 35,000 students, faculty, and staff, and operates a lean security team of four full-time SOC analysts. To address the growing complexity of its digital environment, the university launched a student-powered SOC in 2022, offering students real-world experience and workforce development.

“We are committed to securing the university while offering our students the best possible education,” said Jason Griffin, senior information security analyst at UNLV. “With Splunk, we’ve been able to do both — giving our students hands-on experience while significantly improving our cybersecurity capabilities.”

Boosting Visibility and Efficiency with Splunk

Splunk’s technology has helped to transform UNLV’s cybersecurity approach with built-in features such as adaptive response and advanced dashboarding that allow students to detect, prioritize, and resolve vulnerabilities more effectively.

“When we started, our processes were manual, tedious, and time-consuming,” said Griffin. “With Splunk our visibility has increased dramatically, and we’ve reduced remediation time by more than half. As we implement more automation, we expect to cut that time to just a tenth of what it used to be. Splunk’s ability to efficiently ingest and correlate data is central to that goal.”

Real-World Skills, Real Results

Students participating in the student-powered SOC program gain hands-on experience managing security alerts, correlating incidents, and resolving critical vulnerabilities. The program improves campus security and serves as a pipeline to professional careers. UNLV’s SOC program boasts a 100% job placement rate for graduates, many take roles in major companies and government agencies.

“Student-powered SOCs provide hands-on experience, addressing workforce shortages and budget constraints while enhancing campus security for higher educational institutions,” said Mary Lou Prevost, Splunk’s Group Vice President of State, Local and Higher Education. “UNLV’s partnership with Splunk is building future cybersecurity leaders and is a testament to education working with industry to further digital resilience.”

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