Net Friends Supports Hands-On Cybersecurity Training at Durham Tech

At Net Friends, we believe one of the most meaningful ways to strengthen our community is by investing directly in the people who will shape the future of IT. That’s why we partnered with Durham Technical Community College and donated a set of Palo Alto Networks PA-460 firewalls to their growing cybersecurity and networking programs.

Across multiple Durham Tech courses, students are developing foundational skills to secure networks, manage traffic, and navigate modern threat detection and prevention. By working with enterprise-grade technology, students gain practical knowledge that closely mirrors the environments they will one day manage for real organizations. The PA-460 firewalls are a core component of their learning curriculum, allowing students to configure policies, analyze traffic, and troubleshoot real-world scenarios.

Durham Tech student Tayo Leshaodo demonstrates how hands-on the lab infrastructure is for training simulations. In this teaching environment, select Work Study students spend 20 hours every week managing, upgrading, and troubleshooting networking equipment for “UmbrellaMed”, a hypothetical client. Whether they’re performing mock migrations or reconfiguring networks, Durham Tech students gain the practical experience that employers look for when hiring cybersecurity talent.

Net Friends is proud to support Durham Tech’s mission by playing a role in helping students build the confidence and technical skills to be competitive once they join the IT workforce.

Empowering the next generation of IT professionals isn’t just good for our industry, it’s an investment in the strength and growth of our community. To learn more about Durham Tech’s programs or how Net Friends partners with educators across the region, we’d love to connect.