CIAS Director Greg White and community trainees

UTSA awarded $1 million to develop security training

(Dec. 16, 2004)--A $200,000 grant proposal submitted by the UTSA Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) was accepted and expanded to $1 million by the Department of Homeland Security. The grant will fund research on methods for training communities to develop and conduct their own security exercises.

"Homeland Security's Office of Domestic Preparedness really liked our proposal, and once they checked out our reputation they asked us to expand on it," said Greg White, CIAS director. "The money will be used to conduct exercises around the country, train others to do their own exercises and present national seminars for city officials interested in this issue."

CIAS was established in 2001 to leverage San Antonio's infrastructure assurance strengths and to bolster research and educational initiatives in the field. The multidisciplinary research center is a partnership between academia, the information technology security industry and the local Air Intelligence Agency to address the technical and policy issues of information assurance and security and to provide educational training.

"CIAS has been conducting exercises around the country for over a year," said Natalie Granado, assistant director of CIAS. "This work is what has helped build our reputation."

CIAS personnel have worked on infrastructure assurance and security issues for financial services, telecommunications, and oil and gas organizations in Houston, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Miami. The next exercise scheduled for February in Baltimore involves the chemical sector.

In San Antonio, CIAS was instrumental in leading the highly successful Dark Screen cyber-terrorism exercise in 2002 and 2003. The exercise brought national attention to San Antonio as the first city in the nation to conduct a cyber-security exercise.

UTSA is the first Texas university and one of 50 in the nation with the "Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education" designation by the National Security Agency (NSA). The designation means UTSA's curriculum and faculty meet or exceed NSA standards to teach information-assurance security and makes the university eligible to apply for grants from NSA and the National Science Foundation.

CIAS is part of UTSA's newly created Institute for the Protection of American Communities (IPAC), an institute established to provide technical expertise and solutions to security challenges faced by communities.

--Kris Rodriguez