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The University of Texas at San Antonio Institute for Cyber Security Announces New Technology Incubator
SAN ANTONIO, Nov 18, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --
The University of Texas at San
Antonio (UTSA) Institute for Cyber Security (ICS) today announced the launch
of its new Internet security incubator. As part of the launch, ICS also
announced it has selected two San Antonio start-ups, Denim Labs and
SafeMashups Inc. as the first companies entering the incubator. The incubator
was developed to commercialize promising technologies that address major cyber
security and privacy issues. The Institute for Cyber Security and the
incubator have brought together some of the leading business and technical
minds in computer security in a way that will cement UTSA's position as one of
the country's leading academic hubs for cyber security and enhance the local
economy by attracting entrepreneurs from across the nation to take advantage
of all the resources and opportunities offered by ICS.
"Public and private investment in sponsored cyber security research
results in the creation of technology, inventions, and ideas," said Dr. Robert
W. Gracy, Vice President for Research at UTSA. "By offering local
entrepreneurs access to University resources and providing a forum for
researchers to transform their research into marketable business ventures, we
enable students, faculty, and entrepreneurs to commercialize their ideas,
produce successful, financially viable and freestanding businesses and create
additional jobs in the community."
ICS will offer selected companies vital resources such as access to the
ICS labs and its extensive body of research and the expertise of ICS advisors
and University staff to support everything from product development to
marketing to strategic guidance to office and administrative support. By
leveraging the ICS incubator to expedite its commercialization efforts,
incubator companies will fast track their product development efforts and
expedite time to capital, market, and profitability.
The ICS incubator is structured to work with both innovations developed at
UTSA, as well as to work with entrepreneurs who could benefit from the
expertise and resources of researchers at UTSA. To become a part of the
program, participants must agree to significant collaboration with ICS (or
other UTSA) staff. In exchange, the ICS incubator will provide resources such
as:
-- Access to entrepreneurial researchers with a proven ability to
innovate, and bring products to market
-- Access to seed capital
-- Access to experience in the life cycle of start ups; from 'ideas' to
'exits', and everything in between
-- Support with Intellectual Property protection (patents, software,
etc.)
-- Infrastructure (office and administrative) support
"One thing I learned from establishing and running CERIAS is that the more
people dedicated to enhancing the practice of computer security, the better,"
said Gene Spafford, Executive Director, Center for Education and Research in
Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) at Purdue University. Spafford is
the Executive Director of the ICS Founders Board, and was instrumental in
helping UTSA create ICS. "I am honored to be involved with the Institute for
Cyber Security at UTSA -- it is a welcome addition to the academic community.
ICS has strong institutional and local support, world-class leadership, and
enthusiastic community support -- all critical elements for long-term success.
I am particularly impressed with the launch of the ICS incubator, which has
already begun working with some very interesting young companies in the
application security space."
Denim Labs and SafeMashups - San Antonio's Next Wave of Technology
Innovators
Denim Labs is a new venture created as a spin-off from Denim Group LLP, an
IT consultancy specializing in custom software development, systems
integration, and application security. The Denim Group serves a national and
international client base of commercial and public sector organizations in
industries including financial services, banking, insurance, healthcare and
defense. Denim Labs was created to commercialize leading edge technology
developed at the Denim Group to provide non-intrusive real time detection of
attacks on certain classes of web applications.
SafeMashups is a fledgling company founded to provide the level of
security needed for enterprises to strategically leverage mashups for business
purposes. With patent-pending technology that will enable companies to more
strategically use mashups without placing their IT systems at risk,
SafeMashups is strongly positioned to stake out a piece of the growing Web 2.0
applications market, predicted by Forrester Research to reach $4.6 billion
globally by 2013.
"This is the culmination of years of hard work between UTSA, security
companies in San Antonio, and the Department of Defense institutions that
reside in our community," said John Dickson, Principal at Denim Group, a San
Antonio-based consultancy that builds and secures software applications for
Fortune 500 clients. "The ICS incubator will help identify promising security
technologies that exist at or are close to UTSA and will accelerate getting
the best of these technologies to market."
The incubator will be a part of the Institute of Cyber Security which is
led by its Executive Director, nationally renowned scholar, Dr. Ravi Sandhu.
The incubator itself will be led by Ravi Ganesan, a seasoned technology
executive and entrepreneur.
ICS Founders Day - November 18th 2008
ICS will host its first Founders Day to celebrate the launch of the new
Cyber Security incubator as well as the achievements of ICS Labs and ICS CIAS
over the past year. The event will be held on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008,
at the campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio.
The guest of honor, ICS Founders Board Executive Director Professor Eugene
Spafford of Purdue University will give the ICS Distinguished Lecture on
"Information Security: Some Past Successes, Some Future Challenges" at 4:00 PM
at BSE 2.102. A wine and cheese reception will follow from 5:30 - 7:00 in the
BSE Atrium.
The event will also serve to bring together ICS and incubator company
advisors, which include luminaries from all facets of the cyber security
eco-system that Drs. Ganesan and Sandhu have brought together to ensure ICS
and UTSA maintains its course as one of the country's finest cyber security
research and development centers.
About ICS
The Institute for Cyber Security has a mission of world class research,
with commercialization. Founded in June 2007 and funded as part of the State
of Texas's Emerging Technology Fund, the Institute is led by world renowned
scholar Dr. Ravi Sandhu and is staffed by leading researchers and senior
software architects who are immersed in emerging Internet security issues.
The Institute consists of three units: ICS Labs, a nationally reputed center
for academic research, ICS Incubator which has been established with a mission
to make San Antonio a fertile breeding ground for security companies, and the
ICS Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS), which leverages
San Antonio's IAS skills as part of the solution to the nation's homeland
security needs.
About UTSA
The University of Texas at San Antonio is one of the fastest growing
higher education institutions in Texas and the second largest of nine academic
universities and six health institutions in the UT System. As a multicultural
institution of access and excellence, UTSA aims to be a premier public
research university providing access to educational excellence and preparing
citizen leaders for the global environment. UTSA serves more than 28,400
students in 64 bachelor's, 46 master's and 21 doctoral degree programs in the
colleges of Architecture, Business, Education and Human Development,
Engineering, Honors, Liberal and Fine Arts, Public Policy, Sciences and
Graduate School. Founded in 1969, UTSA is an intellectual and creative
resource center and a socioeconomic development catalyst for Texas and beyond.
SOURCE Institute for Cyber Security at The University of Texas at San Antonio
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