The Texas A&M University System is under attack everyday by hackers all over the planet, but standing guard against more than one million cyber-strikes a month are students and professionals in the System’s Security Operations Center.
Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp recently visited Dan Basile, executive director of the Security Operations Center, to discuss cybersecurity at the Texas A&M System.
See a video of their conversation from the SOC (with real-time map of attempted cyber-attacks) here. http://chancellor.tamus.edu/videos/
“The purpose of this center is to try to stop and detect hacks coming in from all over the world,” Chancellor Sharp said.
Hackers target the System often to try to gain access to classified research and other sensitive information, the chancellor said. But he added that The Texas A&M University System has been diligent in fighting off attacks, and the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Security Service recently recognized the System’s success. See a press release here. https://news.tamus.edu/texas-am-university-system-wins-prestigious-counterintelligence-award/
The men and women who work at the SOC, where much (but not all) of the System’s cyber-defense occurs, spend days and nights monitoring the entire Texas A&M University System. They work hard to detect and eradicate attempts to breach security systems at Texas A&M University, the 10 other regional campuses and the System’s seven state agencies.
Basile said he sees attempts from almost every country in the world, including China and Russia.
“You name a country, and we’ve probably seen an attack from it,” Basile said. “Our goal is to help the entire A&M System to eradicate these threats and ensure they don’t occur.”
On Basile’s team are students from every discipline from computer science and engineering to philosophy and business. Many of the students will leave Texas A&M and become the next generation of cyber warriors.
About The Texas A&M University System
The Texas A&M University System is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation, with a budget of $4.7 billion. Through a statewide network of 11 universities and seven state agencies, the Texas A&M System educates more than 152,000 students and makes more than 22 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year. System-wide, research and development expenditures exceeded $972 million in FY 2016 and helped drive the state’s economy.
