SAN ANGELO, Texas — The City of San Angelo issued a statement from Mayor Brenda Gunter as read at Tuesday's City Council meeting.
Here is Gunter's statement:
"We live in a technology-driven age. With all the benefits that come with that, there are also some challenges that can be quite damaging and even dangerous to citizens. We generally know about the benefits, but what about that other side? Identity theft is probably the biggest problem I hear about the most. How many of you have unknowingly had credit cards opened in your name, or woken up to unknown charges in your bank account? Maybe a $500 loan that you didn’t apply for was approved, or maybe you suddenly own a brand new vehicle that you didn’t purchase. There are far too many people out there who simply are not equipped to protect themselves against malicious attacks such as these.
The City of San Angelo, Tom Green County, San Angelo ISD and Goodfellow Air Force Base have joined forces with Angelo State University and the University of Texas at San Antonio to enhance cybersecurity in our community.
UTSA’s Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security received a grant from the National Security Agency and will be working with multiple communities, beginning with ours, to improve cybersecurity awareness and education throughout our public school system, our local businesses, government and our higher academic institutions.
We will see the launch of a K-12 cybersecurity program that will incorporate cybersecurity into the curriculum. In addition, the collegiate outreach program will consist of initiatives such as National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition teams, certification training, outreach to area high schools and more.
Under the same umbrella, we can expect to an analysis of what our cybersecurity professionals here need, as well as the creation of a training initiative for nonprofits, and even a cybersecurity program that extends to the entire community. These are just some of the many advanced things that will be happening with the help of UTSA, NSA and all our other community partners.
The goal is for our city to be safe from the threats posed from the world of technology … the problem is that many don’t know have the tools to protect themselves against those threats. We’re going to change that. We want citizens from all generations here to be able to thrive in this technology-driven age."
