Cyber security is top of mind more than a week after San Antonio-based company Rackspace fell victim to ransomware.
The city itself and the surrounding community can breathe easy knowing there’s a layer of protection with the Alamo Regional Security Operation Center (ARSOC) working for them.
”We do operational security for the city of San Antonio networks and then we also are a security operations center that is a collaborative environment for all of the community that’s around us,” Patsy Boozer, Chief Security Officer for the city of San Antonio said.
Built with a 24/7 365 day mindset, the ARSOC has been working to protect San Antonio for the past year.
“Just getting everything kind of like fine-tuned has been, I wouldn’t say a challenge, it’s actually been an adventure,” Boozer said.
ARSOC runs on the slogan “Servicing Our Community Through Cyber Excellence” its partners are key in that process.
Manager Sunny Khemalaap says those partners’ identities are protected.
“We’re currently at about 10 and developing some more and we continually get requests on how to participate,” Khemalaap said.
The ARSOC facility was built with 24-hour work in mind, a fully functioning kitchen, gym, sleeping quarters, etc. All there in case of activation for a security threat.
When asked if ARSOC has been activated, Boozer said “no we have not had to activate since we’ve opened here.”
The command floor gives their team here at ARSOC the ability to monitor all of the physical security cameras but also monitor cyber security threats.
“There’s multiple you know surveys that different companies do that show the trends and how it’s growing, but it’s also this time of year we’re going into the holiday season and so there are more scams that are taking place,” Boozer said.
She says ARSOC is unique across the country and will continue to push innovation to better protect people in our area from the growing cyber security threat.