BSU opened a new modern cybersecurity laboratory

Educational and scientific laboratory on cybersecurity was opened at the Faculty of Radiophysics and Computer Technologies of the Belarusian State University on September 18, a correspondent of the Minsk-Novosti agency reports.

The project was implemented in cooperation with the leading Russian developer of information security solutions UserGate. In Belarus, it is the first laboratory of its kind, which allows to train students using the most advanced and modern technologies, having a practice-oriented character. The university has been preparing personnel in the field of information protection since 2003. During this time, the university has produced about 1.5 thousand specialists.

“Students and teachers who have quite a lot of accumulated experience, scientific developments in this area, get the opportunity to get acquainted with the most advanced technologies in the field of cybersecurity, work not only with software, but also with hardware,” said the rector of BSU Andrey Koroly. And we have a mutual interest and collaboration with our Russian partner, when many branches of top education, scientific research and production are united.

Today, cybersecurity specialists are in high demand. The direction is also popular with applicants. According to A. King, sets for the budget are closed literally in the first hours of the start of the admission campaign.

In the new practice-oriented educational space, students will be able to work with real NGFW solutions – smart defenders of computer networks, learn to understand the architecture of modern cyber threats and configure protection against attacks.

- For us, Belarus and, in particular, Minsk is one of our leading intellectual centers. They are also in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk, said Dmitry Kurashev, co-founder of UserGate. There are amazing specialists here. I am sure that we will do a lot in cooperation.

The Russian partner equipped the laboratory with the necessary computer equipment, transferred the developed educational and methodical complexes, as well as licensed software to the university.

- We train specialists for specialized units and cybersecurity centers, which are created in our country in accordance with the presidential decree. There are a lot of them, and most of them are now working for them. There are no problems with the distribution of graduates. Students begin to work in the specialty already from the 3rd year and enter the profession easily, said Yuri Vorotnitsky, Head of the Department of Telecommunications and Information Technologies of BSU.

According to him, close cooperation with leading developers of cybersecurity hardware and software allows you to stay in tune and prepare children taking into account all modern trends.

Anton Strezhik is studying at the 4th year of the Faculty of Radiophysics and Computer Technology.

- My specialty is cyber security. I dreamed of her since childhood, shared the young man. The relevance of the chosen direction is indicated by statistics. If I am not mistaken, only in 2025 ordinary citizens of our country lost about 80 million rubles, faced with cybercriminals. And I already work in one of the leading banks in the country, where, in addition to cybersecurity, I also deal with fraud. Based on some metrics, I can understand, say, that the transaction is not legitimate, and therefore block it.

We ask the guy what knowledge you need to have to become an expert in this field.

- Most likely, you want to hear the answer: master mathematics and physics. Yeah, that's the foundation. But, in addition, you need to understand the basics of object-oriented programming, well know computer networks. And when you enter BSU for this specialty, you need to delve into the legislation regulating information security, said A. Strezhik.

The young man shared his impressions of the new laboratory. According to him, this is an opportunity for students to work directly with the product that is used in their field.

- And later, when the guys come to the companies after graduation, they will be able to implement these protection systems, offer alternatives, create a similar product for organizations. The equipment is good, cool laptops! – said the fourth-year student.

Photo by Diana Shabala