The Center for Information Assurance at the University of Memphis received a $3 million grant that will be split with the University of Texas, the University of Arkansas, Norwich University and Texas A&M, which makes up the National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium.
The Cyber Security Grant was given by the Department of Homeland Security and The Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Dipankar Dasgupta, a computer science professor and the Center for Information Assurance director at the U of M, said that the grant addresses the best practice on how to protect yourself on cyber systems.
“Cyber security is affecting everybody,” Dasgupta said. “Criminals, terrorist and hackers try to get in the system and compromise user access and identity, so we create programs to teach state and federal employees how to securely navigate online.”
With the grant money, the Center for Information Assurance is developing an online training for cyber safety and user identity and authentication. Students will be making the program under supervision from faculty.
The competitive grant is a huge achievement for the university, Dasgupta said.
“They accepted our proposal as a consortium,” Dasgupta said. “Everyone is looking for funding, so the competition was very tough.”
