The SSOC
The CEROC Student-led Security Operations Center provides Tennessee Tech students with a supervised, hands-on environment for developing real-world cybersecurity operations skills. Led by CEROC's Assistant Director of Cyber Operations, a former supervisory special agent with the FBI and Air Force officer, the SSOC enables students to move beyond classroom learning into applied practice through activities such as monitoring, analysis, documentation, cyber assessment support, training, and incident response preparation. These roles create meaningful professional opportunities for students by building technical competence, workplace readiness, and confidence in a mentored operational setting. The SSOC has working academic agreements with Splunk and CrowdStrike to provide industry training in cyber/SOC-related areas.
Through the SSOC, students gain experience that directly supports their progression
into internships, apprenticeships, certifications, and cybersecurity careers. The
program also advances CEROC’s mission of education, research, and outreach by connecting
student development with service to campus, local government, education, public safety,
and other community partners. In this way, the SSOC is both a workforce-development
pathway and a practical service platform that prepares students to meet the cybersecurity
needs of Tennessee and the nation.
Our Work
CEROC's Student-led Security Operations Center produces two kinds of cybersecurity reports — written entirely by Tennessee Tech students — to help our community partners better understand the threats they face.
The CEROC Sentinel
The CEROC Sentinel is a regular cybersecurity awareness publication researched and written by Tennessee Tech students working in CEROC's Student-led Security Operations Center. On a recurring schedule, our student team tracks current cyber threats and security news, then distills it into a clear, readable briefing designed for community leaders, emergency managers, and the organizations that keep our critical infrastructure running. You don't need to be a cybersecurity expert to get value from it — that's the point. The Sentinel is meant to give decision-makers a higher level of awareness about the threats emerging around them, in language that's practical rather than technical. Every issue is a direct product of Tennessee Tech students applying their skills in a fully operational security center.
Intelligence and Target Packages
Where the Sentinel offers a regular, broad look at the threat landscape, our Intelligence and Target Packages go deep. Each one is a focused profile of a specific threat actor or group — who they are, how they operate, and the kind of risk they pose right now. These reports are prepared by our student analysts either at the request of a partner organization or in response to a developing event, and they reflect the same hands-on, real-world work our students perform every day in the Security Operations Center. The result is a resource that helps our partners understand not just that a threat exists, but what it means for them.
CEROC Sentinel |
Intelligence Packages |
Find us on Social Media
Contact Us
Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center
Office Hours: Monday–Friday, 8AM–4:30PM CDT
(931) 372-3519 | ceroc@tntech.edu
Street Address:
Cybersecurity Education, Research and
Outreach Center (CEROC)
Ashraf Islam Engineering Building (AIEB) 238
1021 Stadium Dr.
Cookeville, TN 38501
Mailing Address:
Tennessee Tech University
Cybersecurity Education, Research and
Outreach Center (CEROC)
Campus Box 5134
Cookeville, TN 38505
