The University of Texas has established a new security center to address the growing cybersecurity problems across the country.
The Center for Information Assurance and Security's goal is to conduct research that will lead to innovative cybersecurity solutions and address the national need to produce more trained professionals in the field.
As part of the reasoning behind the need for the center, UT alluded to recent surveys highlighting statistics about Internet and data security.
In 2003, for example, 43 percent of 500 polled organizations reported an increase in electronic crime. Each was victimized an average of 136 times, despite the majority using firewalls and physical security systems.
Additionally, nearly one in five companies was a target of cyber-extortion, including threats of theft of customer data and destruction or theft of intellectual property by cybercriminals, another survey found. And a 2001 survey claimed that one in 20 U.S. adults were victims of online fraud, and one in 50 were victims of identity theft.
"Despite considerable industry spending to develop solutions, the cybersecurity problem continues to grow at an alarming rate," says Frederick Chang, director of the CIAS and a research professor.
"These solutions have made us somewhat safer, but certainly not safe."
Chang, who chairs the board of the Austin Technology Council, recently moved from his position as president of technology strategy for SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC) to the university's Department of Computer Sciences to lead the center's efforts. While with SBC, Chang developed a security lab that investigated how to protect large-scale Internet networks.
The new center will involve business, government and academia in its effort to be a multi-disciplinary initiative. UT's CIAS team will include faculty, researchers and students from the Department of Computer Sciences, the College of Engineering, the McCombs School of Business and the Applied Research Laboratories.
"I believe that the new center is exceptionally well-positioned to make a significant national contribution to the growing cybersecurity problem," says Bobby Inman, who will become interim dean of the university's Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs in January.
Source: Austin Business Journal
