Ohio Cyber Range Institute receives $6.5M in state funding
Funds will help Ohio prepare for cybersecurity attacks, improve equipment
The Ohio Cyber Range Institute (OCRI) at the University of Cincinnati will receive $6.5 million in capital budget funds from the State of Ohio, news outlets such as the Cincinnati Business Courier reported.
The OCRI is a statewide, collaborative network that supports cybersecurity programs across Ohio. The institute’s goal is to advance an integrated approach to cybersecurity education, workforce and economic development in cyber-related fields throughout the state.
The funds will go toward refreshing the range’s original hardware, purchase more advanced equipment and scale its capacity by about 20% to support more classes, training and exercises over the next two years.
“We are now living more and more in a digital world, so there is a base level of skills that everyone needs to learn … the security of the information online is what keeps us in this digital world,” Rebekah Michael, the OCRI executive staff director and an associate professor educator in UC’s School of Information Technology, told the Cincinnati Business Courier.
The OCRI, which is housed at UC Digital Futures, provides training to help organizations throughout Ohio prepare for and respond to cybersecurity incidents. Michael compared the cyber range to a virtual gun range but for cybersecurity.
"When you have a cybersecurity attack, when people have malware, it’s hard to train on how to mitigate that and on how to protect against that because that stuff is just bad on your networks and computers, so you don’t want that running around," she said.
See more:
Featured image at top: Richard Harknett, co-director of the Ohio Cyber Range Institute, speaks to a guest during the grand opening of the Digital Futures building at UC in September 2022. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand
Innovation Lives Here
The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction. Next Lives Here.
Related Stories
Will AI really replace your job?
February 6, 2026
As artificial intelligence seeps into more careers, some people wonder if any jobs will become obsolete in the coming years, according to 700WLW. Jeffrey Shaffer, director of Lindner College of Business’ Applied AI Lab, spoke with 700WLW on the future of AI in the workplace.
UC teams with historic landmark to preserve the past for the future
February 6, 2026
The landscape at Cincinnati’s historic Harriet Beecher Stowe House museum has settled in for winter, under a hard coat of frost and snow. But once spring rolls around, it will show a transformation, thanks in part to the history department at UC’s College of Arts and Sciences. The Beecher Stowe House, located at 2950 Gilbert Ave., serves as a hub for the community and historians interested in the life and political activism of the famed abolitionist. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the groundbreaking “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” while living there, and the home was a stop for fugitive enslaved people on the Underground Railroad prior to the Civil War.
Portman Center gets DOE grant to improve civil discourse
February 6, 2026
The Portman Center for Policy Solutions at the University of Cincinnati received a nearly $800,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to improve civil political discourse.