LAUNCH Cybersecurity partners: LSU and Louisiana ports

The Five Partner Ports

LSU and six major Louisiana ports, including the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, plan to work together to develop talent, perform research and promote business development related to port cybersecurity.

The effort counters the ever-present risk of cyberattacks to critical infrastructure while supporting one of LSU President William Tate’s five top research and scholarship priorities for the state’s flagship university. Tate has said he wants to draw on LSU’s early history as a military school to produce “cyber soldiers” to counter digital threats.

Jay Hardman, executive director of the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, has described the potential for cyberattacks as a “constantly evolving threat.” A recent Jones Walker report found that despite 90% of port and terminal respondents reporting preparedness,

74% indicated that their systems or data had been the target of an attempted or successful breach within the past year.

The agreement between LSU and its port partners outlines opportunities for students and faculty to work with the ports to solve ongoing and emerging cyber challenges. It includes the potential development of cybersecurity testbeds, which are controllable cyber environments for experiments, and joint research to protect port systems as well as broadened collaboration with state and federal security and law enforcement agencies. Primarily, the partnership unites university and port assets to support homegrown cyber talent development for Louisiana.

“Like our students and research expertise, Louisiana’s port system impacts every corner of the state and has national and global reach,” said LSU President William F. Tate IV. “The Scholarship First Agenda elevates domains that meet citizens’ most pressing needs and define Louisiana’s role in the world. These areas: agriculture, biomedicine, coast, defense— including cybersecurity—and energy all converge in Louisiana’s ports.”

Last year, National Security Agency, or NSA, designated LSU as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations, or CAE-CO, positioning it as one of the most technical cybersecurity schools in the country.