COLLEGE STATION – Cybersecurity is one of the top national security priorities as the U.S. faces daily cybersecurity threats against our nation’s critical infrastructure and economy.

Thanks to a Continuing Training Grant awarded by the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) is expanding its efforts to provide cybersecurity training across the nation at no cost to help communities prepare for and respond to cyber incidents.


TEEX’s National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center (NERRTC) is one of five university centers in the National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium (NCPC), which was awarded the $3 million grant. TEEX will receive more than $820,800 over three years for development and delivery of a three-day, instructor-led technical course that addresses system commands, administrative and authorization roles and responsibilities, and IT security.


The new course will target responders who have a role in the Emergency Operations Center, emergency managers, the private sector and non-governmental organizations, said NERRTC Program Director Steve Williams.


During the course, TEEX will work with the Camber Corporation and their Virtualized Cyber Classroom Environment to generate realistic scenarios that simulate cyber attacks that participants in a mock EOC must identify and then mitigate. The need for this course arose from gaps identified in reports such as the National Preparedness Report and the National Initiative for Cybersecurity, Williams said.


“There is a need for additional training for this target audience,” he said. “We want to get them to work together to mitigate a cyber attack, such as planning for shutdowns in case of an attack on the power grid.”


Williams said the new course will build on two other cybersecurity courses, the instructor-led course, “Emergency Management Planning for Community Cyber Preparedness,” and a new instructor-led course,” Cybersecurity Incident Management and Response.”


The course development will be a cross-divisional effort in TEEX by NERRTC, Knowledge Engineering and the Emergency Services Training Institute with instructional design support by the Infrastructure Training and Safety Institute.

Read the FEMA press release.

Learn more about TEEX Cybersecurity Training.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Brian Blake, TEEX Communications Director
[email protected]
PH: 979-458-6837, Cell: 979-324-8995

Will Welch
[email protected]
PH: 979-458-6979, Cell: 979-220-2840

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