The $1.5 million NSA grant will go toward helping the clinic protect small businesses in Louisiana from cybersecurity attacks.
The Louisiana Cybersecurity Clinic, or LCC, will provide free services through the Small Business Development Center at LSU.
LSU is one of 403 Centers of Academic Excellence designated by the NSA and one of only 22 schools nationally that are designated as a highly technical NSA Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations.
While all 403 schools were eligible to apply for NSA support to create a cyber clinic, the NSA offered a maximum of two awards, and the first is going to LSU.
Adam McCloskey, director of the Small Business Development Center at LSU, said the NSA grant will go a long way toward protecting small businesses, which are frequently targets of cyber attacks.
These businesses often don't have the infrastructure to protect themselves, McCloskey said, and need help protecting sensitive internal data that could involve personal details or customer information.
"Small businesses are one of the major targets for hackers because they don't know that they're a target and they don't know what to do to mitigate their risks," McCloskey said."While we have lots of skills with our staff, and cybersecurity is one we can talk about, we can't get into exactly the steps that need to be taken. So the clinic comes in and it provides us a place to tell people to go and really help mitigate that risk."
The LCC will offer services through three collaborative sub-clinics operated by LSU students and faculty advisors.
The sub-clinics will engage with 45 students in the first two years to provide Louisiana small businesses a more efficient way to solve their technical issues.
At five students per sub-clinic per semester starting in the spring of 2024, plans are to potentially expand to 75 students by year three of the program.
Aisha Ali-Gombe, LCC program director and associate professor of computer science and engineering, acknowledged that LSU president William F. Tate assuming office in July 2021 marked the beginning of a redefined "commitment to cybersecurity education and research excellence" at the university.
She said the strides LSU has taken in cybersecurity the past few years have played a large role in why she feels the NSA chose the university for its first cyber clinic grant.
"From hiring world-class experts to achieving the CAE-CO designation and bolstering our NSF Scholarships for Service program, NSA and all funding agencies know that LSU means business," Ali-Gombe said. "Our program has the capacity, resources, expertise, and collaboration to pilot and champion an initiative like the LSU Cybersecurity Clinic."
LSU Director of Economic Development Greg Trahan serves in a special advisory role on cybersecurity efforts and said Tate has been clear about "aspiring to be one of the best cybersecurity schools in the country."
According to Trahan, the LCC could become an example of the type of work attributed to other top cybersecurity institutions.
"I think we have the potential to be the most important cybersecurity school in the country," he said. "And by important, I mean other people look at us and say 'my gosh, that's how you should do that' with something like the cybersecurity clinic being an example."
Trahan said that because large businesses are often supported by many smaller businesses, keeping smaller businesses secure goes a long way toward protecting larger companies from cyber attacks.
"Some of our large businesses in Louisiana are critical infrastructure things like chemical, petrochemical, refineries, ports; those are supported by many small businesses," he said. "Any weakness in that entire ecosystem represents some potential threat, but by improving the security of the people that have the least resources, it elevates the overall security posture and overall resilience of all of our industries that are critical in the state economy."
In a university statement on Tuesday, Tate said the NSA award and future development of the LCC shows how LSU researchers can translate research into applied solutions that can benefit entire communities and the state.
"LSU researchers seek to translate research into applied solutions and technical support," Tate said in the statement. "This award from the NSA signals our faculty's ability to deliver on this aim. It recognizes LSU's growing leadership in cyber as we pursue our mission and Scholarship First Agenda to protect and secure Louisiana and the nation."
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