U.S. government designates UTSA as center of academic excellence

(March 7, 2002)--The United States National Security Agency designated the University of Texas at San Antonio to become a National Center of Excellence in Information Assurance. As a member of a select group of up to 36 universities nationally, UTSA is charged to help secure and strengthen homeland security in light of the Sept. 11 attack against the United States.

"UTSA's excellence in the area of information systems security and success at educating individuals with the skills needed to protect our country's national information infrastructure were key to gaining this distinction," said Ricardo Romo, president of UTSA. "This designation by the federal government recognizes that UTSA is a crucial component in protecting our country."

"Cyber-security breaches pose enormous threats to our government and commercial networks,” said U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a member of the Senate Appropriatons Committee. "The San Antonio area leads the nation in military and business network security and information warfare, and UTSA's efforts will improve our nation's capability to develop procedures to protect our military's computer networks."

"UTSA and the city are very grateful for Senator Hutchison's leadership and vision in securing $2.5 million to create UTSA's Center for Infrastructure Assurance & Security (CIAS)," Romo added. "Without her leadership and the strong support of our Congressional delegation (Gramm, Bonilla, Smith, Gonzalez and Rodriguez) this project would not be funded. Because of the CIAS, UTSA was able to apply for designation as a Center of Excellence in Information Security, with the National Security Agency (NSA)."

CIAS, housed in the UTSA College of Business, offers coursework in information assurance at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Graduate students can elect programs of study in either the technical or non-technical area of computer security. Undergraduate students can earn a minor in information security beginning in the fall of 2002.

U.S. Congressman Ciro Rodriguez, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, has been a strong advocate for UTSA's efforts to promote information security. "I was pleased to have the opportunity to contact the NSA on behalf of UTSA, and this designation affirms UTSA's future role as a leader in Information security," Rodriquez said. "I envision San Antonio emerging as Cyber City, USA, leading the nation in the development of infrastructure security education."

As part of this national security initiative, the United States Senate recently authorized $878 million over five years for research on improving computer network security. More than 70 percent of these funds will be used by universities, particularly institutions designated as centers of excellence by the NSA.

UTSA's CIAS will compete for these funds to educate information technology security specialists and conduct related research. "This is a great distinction for UTSA and our many partners in the community who are supporting the university's work in this field,” Romo said.

Research at CIAS focuses on identifying obstacles to overcome and actions to be taken to protect information technology systems across critical infrastructure service delivery sectors.

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