The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce Cybersecurity Council met last week for the first in-person meeting of the year. Our 2022 Cybersecurity Council Chair, Larry Hurtado, President and CEO of Evanesco, hosted the leadership of the 273rd Cyber Operations Squadron, Texas Air National Guard, to include the commander, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Warren. The discussion centered around the squadron’s role in assisting the Texas Department of Information Resources and several independent school districts that had been attacked using ransomware in the last year. Lieutenant Colonel Warren was joined by Lieutenant Colonel Chris Winnek, Texas Military Department Deputy CIO and Cyber Chief, to talk about future roles and partnerships in protecting both large and small businesses across our region from similar attacks. Integrating key partners into existing exercise frameworks as well as education and outreach were all options for the future.
The Council was also joined by Marcel Johnson, Senior Vice President, Talent & Technology Scouting & Identification with Port San Antonio, who explained the exciting plan for hosting the Cyber Future Foundation’s Cyber Future Summit in October 2022. The Port will be gearing-up to host the summit both in-person and virtually and will be seeking input and assistance from our community. It is a great opportunity to showcase what San Antonio has to offer in the cybersecurity sector and to further position the Alamo City as a leader in the field. Cyber Future Foundation has an emphasis on education and workforce development, an area where San Antonio is well ahead of most of the country, and the summit presents a way to advance the effort to make the city the preferred provider of America’s cybersecurity workforce.