The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce Cybersecurity Council held a meeting last week at UTSA’s San Pedro 1 building to discuss the new UTSA data science building, the work being done by the NSCC, and the collaborative approach being taken in San Antonio’s Cyber industry. Following that conversation, the council heard from Idaho National Laboratory (INL) on research being done to fully understand workforce development issues facing the cyber industry.
To kick off the meeting, Council Chair Larry Hurtado, EVP & Managing Director of Qnext Corp USA, welcomed attendees to the San Pedro 1 facility and recapped some of the success the council has had the last few months. He then introduced General Guy Walsh, Executive Director of the National Security Collaboration Center at UTSA, who provided a brief synopsis of UTSA’s downtown development, the strategic decisions behind construction of the San Pedro 1 Building, and how the NSCC has grown since his arrival. General Walsh highlighted the capabilities of the SP1 building is drawing national attention and was designed with the thought of making it accessible for the public to see. He also provided context to the NSCC’s mission to bring research opportunities to UTSA students and work with industry partners on various issues.
Following General Walsh’s presentation, the council heard from Dr. Shane Stailey of Idaho National Laboratory who has been working on research documenting pain points that companies and organizations face in relation to its cyber workforce. A few takeaways from his presentation include: the cyber workforce gap isn’t a cyber specific issue but rather a business strategic issue in the importance it places on cybersecurity practices, standardization of cyber roles varies greatly between organizations, success measurements to measure cyber readiness also varies greatly. To conquer this obstacle, INL has created the “Cyber-CHAMP” framework that encompasses strategic alignment of issues, security culture of organizations, and workforce competencies of workers.
To conclude the meeting, Rich Valdez of IntelliGenesis LLC who served as the Cybersecurity Focus team lead during the SA to DC trip provided a recap of the trip and highlighted the groups’ successful meetings with legislative offices.
