Stealing information and money, cyber-attacks threaten the safety of individuals, businesses and government agencies.

"A cyber-attack on critical infrastructure like power or water or transportation creates cascading consequences that are disruptive in the real world,” said Eric Stern, the interim director for the University at Albany Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

Stern knows defending against these attacks is essential to maintaining the nation’s security. So, the school is using $1.25 million in federal funding on a new Cybersecurity Incident Response Studio, or CREST.

"CREST is going to create new capabilities to, on the one hand, simulate cyber-attacks and keep up with innovations that cyber attackers are constantly using to confound organizations,” Stern said, “and to give decision-makers opportunities to practice dealing with the consequences of cyber-attacks."

The initiative will bring cyber and crisis management researchers from across campus together to support training and simulation exercises for public, private and non-profit sector partners.

"There are definitely some cyber hygiene practices that both employees and organization as a whole can implement, but there are also some insights that can be developed if one knows how cyber incidents cascade through various organizations and various industries in the community that they live with,” said Department of Cybersecurity Chair Ariel Pinto.

As society becomes more dependent on technology, the training, which will include simulations on virtual reality headsets, will be geared toward smaller organizations, businesses and non-profits.

"One of the wonderful things about this project is that it's drawing on expertise from all across campus, and we have expertise in digital forensics at the business school. That’s likely to be helpful,” Stern said.