National Cybersecurity Center opens for business in Colorado Springs>
The Gazette – Wayne Heilman
Two years after Gov. John Hickenlooper unveiled a vision in his State of the State address to build a cybersecurity center in Colorado Springs, the dream became a reality Monday in a former satellite plant on North Nevada Avenue. The center that moved from temporary offices near the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs to the former satellite plant now owned by UCCS at 3650 N. Nevada Ave. is different from what Hickenlooper envisioned. It has just four employees, won’t be helping businesses, nonprofits and government agencies recover from cyberattacks and likely will share space with an accelerator program designed to help cybersecurity businesses grow. Since taking over in August as the center’s interim CEO, Vance Brown has been remaking the nonprofit as a self-supporting think tank for online security. Curriculum for the workforce development effort is still being planned, but Wood said the classes and training sessions will be offered in a mix of classroom and online sessions and also will include a program to train police, firefighters and other first responders how to respond to computer hacking and other cyberattacks. Nearly all of the $7.93 million state allocation was used to fix the building’s leaky roof and replace aging electrical and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, Wood said. UCCS plans to seek funding from government agencies, foundations and partners to renovate more of the building, ideally in the next 18 months, he said. The center’s primary role will be to educate government and business leaders about cyber threats so they can develop public policy and make decisions for their businesses, Brown said. Much of that education will come from seminars and workshops the center conducts, including a two-hour workshop on blockchain technology – used by bitcoin and other virtual currencies – this month and a two-day cybersecurity training course in March for executives, as well as its annual three-day symposium that Brown hopes eventually will rival the weeklong Space Symposium that attracts 11,000 people here annually. The final part of Brown’s vision for the center is Exponential Impact, an 11-week accelerator program to help startups focused on cybersecurity and related technologies turn into thriving businesses. He donated $100,000 to start the program, serves as president of the accelerator’s board and hired Hannah Parsons, who had been chief economic development officer of the Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC, as CEO. He and Parsons want Exponential Impact to be based in the same building as the NCC, but details have yet to be firmed, she said. Exponential Impact has received applications for its first “cohort,” or class of 5-10 companies, and is still recruiting additional applicants who must apply at exponentialimpact.com by Feb. 23. Applicants must be past the idea stage and have developed a “minimum viable product” using cybersecurity, blockchain or artificial intelligence technology but they don’t have to be generating revenue, Parsons said. They must commit to at least one founder attending the entire 11-week program and prefer that the entire management team participate, she said.
Link: http://gazette.com/national-cybersecurity-center-opens-for-business-in-colorado-springs/article/1619406