BSC students score perfectly on cybersecurity exam; program earns 95% pass rate | Bismarck State College

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BSC students score perfectly on cybersecurity exam; program earns 95% pass rate

Published: Jun 10 2020
Two Bismarck State College Cybersecurity students scored perfectly on the TestOut Security Pro Certification Exam and the BSC Cybersecurity program had a 95 percent pass rate for those students taking the examination, well above the recent national average of 66 percent. 
 
Chris Cain, Bismarck, N.D., and Samantha Dirk, Mandan,N.D., earned a perfect 100 percent on the exam that measures the ability to perform tasks commonly performed by IT security professionals such as network and systems administrators and IT security specialists. Of the 59 students in BSC Assistant Professor Tanya Taplin’s Computer and Network Security course, 56 passed on the first attempt.
 
“Much of the students’ success on this certification is due to the concepts and techniques learned and reiterated throughout the courses in the BSC Cybersecurity program,” says BSC Cybersecurity Outreach Coordinator Tammy Heick. “The BSC scores in network defense are substantially higher than the national average and this is a direct result of the multiple networking classes our program offers, which contributes significantly to the overall success in that area.”
 
Rather than a typical multiple choice exam, the TestOut Security Pro Certification Exam uses advanced simulation technology to measure skills and proficiencies.
 
“Passing this exam means that our BSC Cybersecurity students are capable of implementing layered security through group policy objects, access control lists, wireless and wired local area network security measures, and workstation and mobile device security measures,” says Heick.
 
BSC is a higher education lead for K-20W cyber education in North Dakota, and offers an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) in Cybersecurity and Computer Networks, a Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) in Cybersecurity and Information Technology as well as numerous industry certifications.
 
In July 2018, BSC entered into an educational partnership with global cybersecurity leader Palo Alto Networks expanding the college’s cyber education programs and enabling BSC to scale online and classroom cybersecurity offerings. In March 2019, the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security designated Bismarck State College as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education (CAE-CDE) through 2024.