What happened
The command center will be led by retired Vice Admiral Timothy James White, who was appointed to the position by Gov. Greg Abbott on Sept. 16.
During opening remarks, Taylor Eighmy, UT San Antonio president, said the university’s programs and facilities are at the state’s disposal.
"To advance the command's mission, UT San Antonio stands ready to contribute subject matter expertise and state-of-the-art facilities to help build a robust cyber defense infrastructure for the state of Texas, developing advanced cyber tools, cultivating partnerships, including our deep federal ecosystem here, and supporting cyber security operations," Eighmy said.
White said TXCC is incredibly important for the state due to the heightened risks of cybersecurity attacks.
“Big actors in this space—state, [national] actors in this space, criminal organizations in this space—they're coming for Texas. They've come for Texas. They are here,” White said. “And so I think the expectation of the governor and the legislature is that Texas Cyber Command rapidly has to be part of the solution."
“Texas, eighth-largest economy on the globe, [is] on a path to be the seventh on the globe,” White said. “There is no global economy, much less Texas economy, or quality of life or life without our attachment and continued use of cyberspace. We must defend and protect it.”
White and Eighmy also discussed how UT San Antonio is uniquely suited to house TXCC.
“I would say that there are a couple things about the culture of UT San Antonio,” White said. "They have an extraordinary commitment to excellence in cybersecurity and education. They are one of six universities across the entire country that have all of the cybersecurity certifications that you can be awarded from the National Security Agency ... So, for any university to be awarded all three of them, much less to be one of six, the only one in the state of Texas."
White also pointed to UT San Antonio’s existing partnerships as a prime reason for the state to house the TXCC at the university.
“They have existing partnerships between faculty and students in the context of people that are interested in serving, whether it's in an [Reserve Officers' Training Corps] unit or with research partnerships that they've cultivated—the 16th Air Force, the [Department of Defense] and the intelligence community, NSA Texas,” White said.
Eighmy said UT San Antonio’s expanding programs will also benefit the TXCC.
“[UT San Antonio] already technically launched our brand new College of AI, Cyber and Computing. It's going to be located in the building next door, and in this building, it's going to bring about 5000 students downtown," Eighmy said. "If you were to add up all of the degree programs that we offer that have a direct or tangential relationship to things related to cyber and AI and data and computing, about 10% of our undergraduate population is involved in these courses. So that's on the order of 3,500 students each year. So we're going to have a massive presence downtown here, co-located intentionally with Texas Cyber Command."
Looking ahead
TXCC is currently housed at UT San Antonio’s San Pedro I building, and officials are discussing the agency's permanent location. TXCC is reviewing applications for principal staff such as general counsel, human resources, principal deputies, vice commander, vice chief, and a contracting and financial planner.
