Regional Security Operations Center Wins Statewide Collaboration Award

The TASSCC is a nonprofit organization for information technology professionals at Texas state agencies, state-supported colleges and universities, and select private sector partners. It annually presents up to four Project Excellence Awards in any or all of the following categories:

• Collaborative Solutions
• Data Sharing and Management
• Cost Effective, High Value Initiatives
• Application of Innovation to Transform the Delivery of Public Services

Angelo State’s RSOC provides cybersecurity support, monitoring and response services and infrastructure to local and regional Texas government entities, medical facilities and school districts. The RSOC earned its 2024 TASSCC award in the Collaborative Solutions category, and ASU is just the ninth Texas public university to win a Project Excellence Award since the program was initiated in 2000.

Dr. Don Topliff, provost and vice president for academic affairs, accepted ASU’s award at the TASSCC conference awards luncheon.

Dr. Don Topliff “It was an honor for Angelo State to be chosen to pilot the state’s RSOC initiative, and this award is evidence that we have done it the right way,” Topliff said. “The RSOC provides valuable cybersecurity services to our region while also preparing students for impactful careers helping keep our region, state and nation cyber secure. The RSOC staff is to be commended for earning this prestigious award.”

A component of ASU’s Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Cyber Intelligence, Innovation, and Security Studies, the RSOC officially opened on the ASU campus in January 2023 and is staffed by 12 security analysts who hold top certifications. About 30 ASU student analysts and interns also staff the center as they train alongside the professionals to gain valuable hands-on experience and position themselves to earn Security+ certification.