TekStream Solutions

Additional Info

CompanyTekStream Solutions
Websitehttps://www.tekstream.com/
Company size (employees)100 to 499
Headquarters RegionNorth America

Overview

One of the most critical business sectors, the cybersecurity industry faces a severe workforce crisis, with more than 600,000 unfilled positions in the U.S. To address the talent shortage, TekStream, in partnership with Louisiana State University (LSU), Splunk and AWS, developed a student-powered Security Operations Center (SOC) that leverages a whole-of-state approach. Launched in 2023, the SOC offers 24/7 security coverage across 34 institutions while providing students with up to 1,000 hours of frontline security experience each year, regardless of their major.

Students in the LSU SOC receive career counseling and guidance in the context of their program performance to help guide them toward the cybersecurity discipline best for their skills and aptitudes. Participating students take Splunk Academic Alliance courses and are trained in TekStream playbooks built on Splunk SOAR as actual employees. These playbooks are guides for various use cases that specify what evidence they need to collect to remediate a cyber threat. Alongside TekStream, students can investigate 22 different types of detections. Since early 2024, students have worked on approximately 33% of all SOC cybersecurity incidents.

Key Capabilities / Features

According to a 2023 MIT Technology Review report, the top two challenges in recruiting cybersecurity employees are a lack of necessary skills or experience and an overall shortage of candidates. TekStream's innovative whole-of-state approach is helping the public and private sectors solve this challenge, as evidenced by their partnership with Louisiana State University (LSU), Splunk and AWS to develop a student-powered SOC.


Launched in 2023, the SOC offers 24/7 security coverage across 34 institutions while providing students with up to 1,000 hours of frontline security experience each year. Participating students take Splunk Academic Alliance courses and are trained in TekStream playbooks built on Splunk SOAR as actual employees. These playbooks are guides for various use cases that specify what evidence they need to collect to remediate a cyber threat. Alongside TekStream, students can investigate 22 different types of detections. Since early 2024, students have worked on approximately 33% of all SOC cybersecurity incidents.


Not only does the SOC serve as a solution that actively engages and serves LSU students, but it's also building the needed talent pipeline to close the security workforce gap. In collaboration with TekStream, LSU generates a transcript for each student to help them successfully transition into the job market after completing the program. The transcript provides a holistic view of the student's SOC experience that can be present during the job application process. At the end of 2024, the first three graduates of the program have been hired as full-time TekStream employees.


LSU aims to have 38 institutions onboarded into the program by June 2025, encompassing most of the state's higher education institutions. TekStream's whole-of-state approach to developing a student-powered SOC has become a sought-after framework. The New Jersey Institute of Technology is working with TekStream to develop a similar program on their campuses.


How we are different

1. TekStream’s student-powered SOC, in partnership with LSU, AWS and Splunk, is a first-of-its-kind, co-managed, student-run SOC, on LSU’s flagship campus in Baton Rouge. The SOC is based on TekStream’s MDR service, which uses Splunk’s SIEM/SOAR software deployed on AWS.


This approach combines the best of ad hoc, extemporaneous threat hunting in SIEM. The SOAR environment is guided and structured with pre-defined steps for particular threats, and TekStream-developed playbooks ensure consistency in execution.


2. Unlike other student-powered SOCs, which typically target IT, cybersecurity and computer science majors, LSU students from all disciplines are recruited to work on the SOC with continuous support and training from TekStream through its MDR service. This allows LSU to defray costs associated with SOC operations and provides students with valuable experience and marketable skills upon graduation. Additionally, financial incentives in the unique agreement incentivize all parties to excel at detecting and defending against cyber threats.


3. As part of this innovative model, TekStream experts train students to manage the LSU SOC using Splunk technology. Students are trained at the same level as TekStream employees on cyberattacks, analysis, network defense, policy and escalation and real-time response tactics to actual incidents. They gain valuable experience in professional roles that are in high demand. This serves as an excellent opportunity to take a lower-cost approach to training new talent and upskilling current IT staff that addresses labor shortages that are driving up labor costs in both the public and private sectors.


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