Clemson University to open $20M national cybersecurity center.

• Position: South Carolina

Clemson University is opening a national center where researchers will devise new ways of hardening the transportation system against cyberattack as a growing number of vehicles and more of the world's infrastructure rely on the internet to move people and goods safely and efficiently.

The new National Center for Transportation Cybersecurity and Resiliency (TraCR) is set to receive $20 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation over a five-year grant period, according to a Clemson news release. Clemson was one of only five universities selected this year by the Department of Transportation to lead national University Transportation Centers.

Researchers expect to develop software and hardware that will be designed as an ironclad defense against cyberattack, the release stated. Wirelessly connecting vehicles to each other and to the roadway infrastructure holds the promise of reducing gridlock, crashes, fuel use, emissions and social inequities.

However, it also opens the transportation system to a host of cyberthreats from individual hackers, criminal gangs, terrorists and other bad actors. With every vehicle and piece of infrastructure that connects to the internet, there is opportunity to steal data, invade privacy, demand a ransom, generate misinformation or even shut down a whole system.

The new center will put Clemson on the country's frontline defense in combating these infrastructure attacks, with Mashrur "Ronnie" Chowdhury serving as the principal investigator and the center's director, the release stated. Partnering institutions are Benedict College, Florida International University, Morgan State University, Purdue University, South Carolina State University, the University of Alabama, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Texas at Dallas.

'The center will develop a comprehensive platform to defend against cyberattacks'

"This new center, supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation, places Clemson and our partners at the forefront of transportation cybersecurity and resiliency," said University President Jim Clements in the relerase. "The center will combine educational and workforce development programs, ensuring we continue to...