A Leader in Research of Computers and Information Security
UTSA is a leader in information security education and research. The university led the city of San Antonio in its first mock cyber terrorism exercise, the first city in the U.S. to do so back in 2002. It has been a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research since 2009, when it received that designation by the National Security Agency. Led by researchers in the College of Business, the College of Engineering, and computer science faculty, UTSA is proud to be one of only 47 institutions nationwide to receive this award.
UTSA’s cyber security program has been ranked the best in the nation, according to a national survey of certified information technology security professionals conducted by the Ponemon Institute for Hewlett-Packard. The survey of 2,000 cyber security professionals rated 403 educational institutions’ academic rigor, faculty quality, and professional reputation, among other qualities.
UTSA’s information security program is anchored in the College of Business, which offers a BBA degree in infrastructure assurance, as well as several undergraduate minors in this field, a Master of Science in Information Technology degree with a concentration in infrastructure assurance and a Ph.D. in Information Technology. The high-caliber of faculty and students attracted to these programs ensures that UTSA will be on the leading edge of research in the field for decades to come.
UTSA Cyber Security and Cloud Computing Laboratories
UTSA has broken ground on a 27,387 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility dedicated to cyber security, information assurance research and related study. Currently, research takes place in five laboratories across campus:
Advanced Laboratories for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (ALIAS)—In this secure server area, research in network intrusion detection, development of forensic search algorithms, and security modeling with genetic algorithms is conducted. The lab also includes two state-of-the-art classroom areas for academic work in digital forensics, network and telecommunications security, secure operating system development, secure code development, and biometrics.
FlexCloud & FlexFarm—ICS FlexCloud offers significant computing capacity with similar design features adopted by other cloud computing providers. FlexFarm is an internet-connected environment providing researchers with a dedicated platform to conduct research on malware detection, malware response and removal.
Computer Science Information Security Lab (CSISL)—This 12,000 sq. ft. lab was designed for security research and teaching. It houses 50 computers with an internal firewalled network for security testing and experimenting.
Laboratory for Advanced Information Security Education and Research (LAISER)—This 2,200 sq. ft. lab houses classroom and research laboratories supporting study of biometrics, digital forensics, advanced telecommunications, data mining and intrusion detection. The lab provides researchers with a tightly controlled, highly-secure environment in which to study information assurance, networking and cloud computing,
Multi-Media and Mobile Signal Processing (MMSP) Laboratory—Research in this lab involves signal/image processing algorithms and architectures, information security, secure multimedia and wireless communications, machine vision and pattern recognition, signal/image enhancement, filtering, representation, modeling and compression, and bioinformatics.
UTSA Cloud, Cyber, Computer, & Analytics Research Center
- Center for Education and Research in Information and Infrastructure Security (CERI2S)
- Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS)
- Institute for Cyber Security (ICS)
- Open Cloud Institute (OCI)
- Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute (TSERI)
