Ivy Tech Cyber Academy Teams Up with Muscatatuck to Train Defenders of Your Information

At the Indiana National Guard’s Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, more than soldiers are being trained.

Muscatatuck Urban Training Center - MuTC, is operated near Butlerville and managed by the Indiana National Guard. It’s best known as a unique training site used by military units and by local, state, and national first responders, and even international partners. MuTC is built like a small city, on 1,000 acres with more than 190 structures, tunnels, specialized training areas, managed airspace, and even a reservoir - ideal for complex, multi-site exercises. What’s not widely known is that tucked into Muscatatuck is a cyber training environment that’s helping people develop the skills needed to keep businesses running, essential services safe, and personal information secure.

That’s where the Cyber Academy of Ivy Tech Community College comes in. For eight years, this accelerated program has operated within MuTC’s state of the art computer facility to give students hands-on experiences that go far beyond textbooks. The students who come from around Indiana and beyond can even live at Muscatatuck during the training months. The result is a partnership that blends higher education with a one-of-a-kind training facility producing job-ready cyber security professionals who are skilled and certified-ready when they graduate.

So why should we care about a Cyber Academy inside a military training center in our own backyard? Because cyberattacks don’t just target “big tech.” Everyday people are targets, too—through phishing texts and emails that swindle money, robo calls that can steal information, account takeovers after passwords are leaked or reused, and identity theft that can drain a bank account, take over a deed, or hijack a reputation. The cyber criminals also hit small manufacturers, local governments, hospitals, banks, utilities, schools, transportation systems, and anywhere else that depends on connected systems to operate, and that has money available to steal and services to disrupt. Every time you connect to the internet you are potentially unlocking the door to your personal and financial information and property. Every 14 seconds a business experiences a ransomware attack. Modern cybercriminals create threats by using sophisticated social and identity-based attacks; 540 million Facebook users have had their accounts breached. And as cyberattacks grow more costly, the financial hits have led to ‘cyberflation,’ a term that describes companies charging customers more for products or services in order to recover their losses. The US has the most cyber-crime attacks. Cyber Academy trains the defenders.

Ivy Tech has one of only two accelerated cyber security programs in Indiana. The Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency have designated Ivy Tech as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity Education, signaling that its curriculum meets rigorous national standards.

Cyber Academy, with its intensive training program, is able to provide job-ready applicants into the workforce in 11 months. The other programs are designed for four years. In that sense, training cyber defenders locally is an economic development story as much as it is a technology story.

Cyber professionals, today, must combine cybersecurity expertise with AI awareness and that is part of the Cyber Academy training. The trainees practice on networks that mirror real-world systems. This includes seeing the impact of AI as a threat used by hackers and bad actors, and also seeing the role of AI

as a tool for the good guys that enhances productivity rather than being a replacement for cybersecurity professionals. While AI can handle repetitive and data-intensive tasks faster, human expertise remains essential for critical decision-making, and handling ethical considerations. Cybersecurity employment is predicted to grow 35 percent by 2031, according to industry organization ISACA.

The Cyber Academy’s 11-month program leads to an Associate of Applied Science degree. It’s designed for civilians and military learners alike, and it doesn’t require previous computer experience—an intentional choice to open the door to career-changers, recent graduates, and service members looking to translate their discipline and mission focus into the cyber workforce.

Ivy Tech’s Cyber Academy builds on the partnership with MuTC to create a real talent pipeline: students earn a college credential in less than a year at a cost under $10,000, and graduate ready to compete for entry-level jobs starting at $62,000 that fill the industry gap for cyber security professionals.

Interested in learning more about Ivy Tech’s Cyber Academy at Muscatatuck Training Center? Contact Kristi Samples, Cyber Academy Coordinator, at 812-785-6191 or cyberacademy@ivytech.edu.