The Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce Cybersecurity Council has been working since early 2022 to educate our local elected leaders about cybersecurity in our region and the challenges that security professionals address every day. Council member Cindy McClister, Chair of the Advocacy and Elected Leader Engagement Focus Team, led the effort in early 2022 to develop a series of tabletop exercises for elected leaders demonstrating the necessity of preparedness and the difficulty of recovering from a cyber incident.
Cindy worked closely with Rob Dodson of Cyberops Academy and Def-Logix and Council member Patsy Boozer, Chief Information Security Officer for the City of San Antonio, to host leaders at the Alamo Regional Security Operations Center located at Port San Antonio. Over the course of late 2022 and early 2023, Cindy and Rob ran four tabletop exercises hosting city council members, local mayors and city managers, representatives for congressional and state legislative offices, and community partners such as the Texas Air National Guard.
On September 27th, thanks to community partners Diane Rath and Miguel Segura at the Alamo Area Council of Government, Cindy and Rob briefed eight County Judges from our region about the Council’s program. After the briefing some local judges expressed interest in bringing the program to their County staff to discuss their preparedness and rehearse together, should an incident occur.
Even though Cindy and Rob are beginning to ramp down this successful two-year program at the Council, Patsy Boozer and the team at the City of San Antonio Information Technology Services (ITSD) will continue to run their semi-annual exercises that incorporate not only regional cybersecurity partners, but also state and federal entities key in preparedness and recovery.