SAN ANTONIO – The Cybersecurity for Manufacturing (C4M) hub at Port San Antonio is just one of 15 that can be found across the United States.
C4M is a hub of CyManII, the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute. This institute is focused on providing cybersecurity training to companies across our country.
CyManII is part of The Department of Energy’s initiative to prevent cyberattacks in our nation.
In 2020, UTSA formally launched CyManII thanks to a grant from the Department of Energy. The five-year grant is helping bring cybersecurity protection to our networks.
“Our mission is to protect infrastructure in the United States,” said Alvaro Espinosa, the manager of C4M at Port San Antonio.
Here in San Antonio, and South Texas, cybersecurity researchers have trained 30,000 people in cybersecurity safety. The lab has a goal of training 1 million people over the next two years.
“We basically go to different places, and we go and train without interrupting your operation in cybersecurity topics,” Espinosa said.
What exactly is cybersecurity?
Espinosa describes it as a war that takes place within internet networks. He said it is important to protect critical infrastructure against attacks on networks.
“We are providing a lot of free training from the beginning, from the very early stages for awareness all the way up to disaster recovery planning, penetration testing,” said Espinosa.
The C4M lab is able to offer this training through their Mobile Education Training Vehicle. The tech-loaded vehicle can hold up to eight training stations inside, and researchers are able to set up another 20 training stations outside.
The teach a variety of cybersecurity safety including:
- Password management
- Using the correct upgrade for a software system
- Learning how information is transferred between different entities within the organization
“Basically, through this vehicle, we make this all this training available for anyone across the state,” Espinosa said.
It’s not just companies the training vehicle goes to; they also visit schools.
“It’s a new way to train people, gamifying the cybersecurity topics where kids can actually connect,” Espinosa said. “We are proactive about that, so that’s why we’re going to the fifth graders to start getting them involved on this type of information.”
Espinosa said getting people in our area trained on cybersecurity is vital because 80% of cybersecurity breaches happen because of people. This is where UTSA comes in. C4M researchers work with UTSA students and interns to build robots in their lab and attack them.
This is how it works: a robot is built and becomes a functional operation. The team at C4M will then attack their own robots to see what is able to bring that robot down. By doing this, the team is able to learn what needs to be done to prevent an attack on the robot. By learning this inside a controlled environment, the team can then learn how to help companies prevent attacks before they happen.
“We are kind of putting some real-world experience on the theoretical to build a network of local manufacturers and companies that are possible to work with,” said Alessandra Ruiz, a C4M intern and junior at UTSA.
C4M and CyManII are able to bring their training sessions to anyone in South Texas. If you are interested in getting their mobile training lab out to your business or to a school to teach students, click here.
“This is an institution that is provided by the United States, is a fixed tax money. So it’s owned by all the citizens, so reach out and we are here to serve,” Espinosa said.