The University of Texas at San Antonio will build a $135 million command center that will work with Regional Security Operations Centers across the state to repair weaknesses in government systems and educate users.
June 03, 2025 •
Brandon Lingle, Scott Huddleston, San Antonio Express-News
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(TNS) — Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill Monday creating the Texas Cyber Command at the University of Texas at San Antonio, one of his top priorities for this legislative session.
“The lack of investment in cyber protection” has led to an increase in the number of cyber attacks affecting Texas, but “that changes today,” Abbott said at the signing ceremony held at the school’s National Security Collaboration Center in downtown San Antonio.
The event was held just days after the Legislature passed House Bill 150, creating the cyber hub that Abbott in his 2025 State of the State address listed as an emergency item.
The “ultimate mission is to prevent and to protect against cyber breaches,” he said at the San Antonio ceremony. The command hub also will develop a Cyber Threat Intelligence Center “to identify and repair weaknesses in state and local government systems,” help educate users and coordinate with partners on attack responses.
“It’s very fair to say that outside of Washington, D.C., the very epicenter of excellence related to cybersecurity is here … and it’s a perfect host for the Texas Cyber Command,” UTSA President Taylor Eighmy said at Monday’s ceremony. “We have wonderful working relationships with all of our federal partners, and they’re here for a reason and purpose to support this success of the launch of Texas Cyber Command,” he said.
UTSA hasn’t announced where it plans to build the $135 million cyber command that state officials expect will create 130 jobs and be operational in 18 months.
Joining Abbott and Eighmy were the bills’ authors, Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, and Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Keller, as well as Department of Information Resources Executive Director Amanda Crawford, Department of Public Safety Col. Freeman F. Martin and the Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd, other officials and cyber experts.
‘CYBERSECURITY CAPITAL’ OF TEXAS
Abbott has referred to San Antonio as the “cybersecurity capital of the state of Texas,” and there’s data to back him up. With more than 17,000 people working in cyber and IT fields across the defense and civilian sectors, the city has the nation’s second-largest concentration of cybersecurity experts in the country, surpassed only by Washington, D.C.
Representing those sectors at the event were officials from the National Security Agency’s Texas center, 16th Air Force, Army North, FBI, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security attended the afternoon event.
“There could be no more fitting location with a combination of all these assets fighting one of the most vicious and constant crimes we deal with every single day, and working together with the Texas Cyber Command, they will put Texas on a path to be a national leader in cybersecurity,” Abbott said.
Parker, who penned the identical Senate Bill 2176, said the cyber command will “work cooperatively” with the existing Regional Security Operations Centers across the state.
“Cyber command will be here in San Antonio, but it will coordinate with each of those RSOCs that are distributed across the state,” he said.
SETTING UP THE CYBER COMMAND
Parker said officials are working on a “very thorough plan” outlining the governance, operation and staffing of the new agency. He hopes the state will hire the new head of the cyber command within the next “three to six months.”
“One of the cool things about cyber command is that every entity of government has the ability to choose to be a part of Texas Cyber Command,” he said. “School districts, cities, counties — they can all choose to be a part of it, which is pretty spectacular, and get the benefit that accrues from being a part of the cyber command.”
Legislative budget documents show the command will cost $135.5 million through 2027. Over the next five years, it’s expected to cost $345.2 million.
The UT system estimates it will cost $60.4 million to acquire and renovate a property, which would include installing secure facilities for handling sensitive information. It has committed that amount from its Permanent University Fund for the project. UT estimates it will need an additional $24 million for startup and operating costs in 2026. Initial staffing calls for 65 full-time employees in 2026, growing to 130 the next year.
‘VALIDATION’ OF S.A.’S CYBER ROLE
“This is a proud moment for San Antonio and its growing cybersecurity industry,” said John Dickson, founder of Cybersecurity San Antonio and CEO of Bytewhisper Security. “The governor’s selection of San Antonio for the command is further validation of our city’s leadership role in this fast-moving industry. Now the hard work begins.”
The new command will take over some of the Texas Department of Information Resources’ responsibilities to be the state’s cybersecurity clearinghouse. It will head the state’s cyber defense, education and training, threat intelligence monitoring, partnerships and the collecting of incident reports.
The bill calls for creating a digital forensics lab, cybersecurity incident response unit and a cybersecurity threat intelligence center to work with law enforcement agencies and to provide guidance to the state’s regional centers.
The command also will provide a report about Texas’ cybersecurity every two years. In its 2024 report, the Department of Information Resources said the state “must build on past efforts to prioritize investments in cybersecurity infrastructure, workforce development, and public-private collaboration.”
UTSA is gaining a national reputation for its cyber and computing programs. In July, Forbes ranked the university’s cybersecurity degree as fifth in the nation. Its new College of AI, Cyber and Computing is opening this fall. It’s also expanding the School of Data Science that opened in January 2023 along with the $91.8 million National Security Collaboration Center at 506 Dolorosa St. downtown.
Joining those facilities is the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute, or CyManII, the nation’s only research institute focused on the cybersecurity of U.S. manufacturing, as well as several university-led research centers focused on cyber threats and new technologies.
