Acronis Sponsors National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition

April 19, 2007, Burlington, MA, and San Antonio, TX - Acronis, Inc. (www.acronis.com/en-us/), the technological leader in storage management software, announced that it will co-sponsor the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition hosted by the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security April 21-23 in San Antonio, TX. The event's primary sponsor is the Department of Homeland Security.

Acronis is donating licenses for its Acronis True Image 9.1 Enterprise Server, Acronis Universal Restore for Enterprise Server, Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Linux, Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation, and Acronis Universal Restore for Workstations. The value of the donation is nearly $50,000.

Other corporate sponsors include Cisco Systems (www.cisco.com), Northrop Grumman (www.northgrum.com), TippingPoint (www.tippingpoint.com), Internet Security Systems (www.iss.net), the International Board and local Alamo Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association (www.issa-alamo.org). ThinkGeek (www.thinkgeek.com), Coretrace (www.coretrace.com), O'Reilly Media (www.oreilly.com), Pepsi (www.pepsi.com), Citadel Security Software (www.citadel.com), and R&L Foods (www.randlfoods.com).

The competition features 50 participants representing the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the University of Texas at Austin, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Millersville University, United States Military Academy, United States Air Force Academy, United States Merchant Marine Academy, United States Coast Guard Academy, and the Air Force Institute of Technology. The eight-member teams will focus on the operational aspect of managing and protecting an existing network infrastructure.

Each team inherits a fictional operational business network with email, web sites, data files and computer users. Scoring is based on each team's ability to correct network problems, perform business tasks and defend their networks from hostile cyber attacks.

"Competitions like this demonstrate the finest blend of higher education and the private sector," said Walter Scott, CEO of Acronis. "Acronis is honored to once again participate in a competition that designed to combine network security and operations with business acumen and strategic planning. The lessons these teams learn, both from a perspective of network operations and user productivity, are the cornerstones for success. Acronis applauds the UTSA Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) for its foresight and dedication to making this event so successful."

"Acronis is proud to be sponsoring such an important event," said Stephen Lawton, Acronis' director of marketing. "Tomorrow's IT leaders need to understand not only networking's best practices, but also be able to take emerging technologies and create new best practices. These are among the best and the brightest up-and-coming network administrators in the country. While Acronis is expert at restoring failed systems, these are the administrators who must be expert at disaster prevention."

"San Antonio has a rich history of cyber security operations and research, and with the presence of the Air Force's Computer Emergency Response Team and Information Warfare Center, San Antonio is a logical location to host the national cyber competition," said Greg White, Director of the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS). "This particular competition features security, but emphasizes maintaining the operational use of a network. We're thrilled to have corporate partners like Acronis. Their software allows us to build and deploy identical competition systems rapidly and provides the students with the ability to perform their own backups and recover systems during the competition."

About the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security and the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) is the research and operational component of the Information Assurance program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The CIAS is designed to leverage San Antonio's Infrastructure Assurance and Security (IAS) strengths as part of the solution to the nation's Homeland Security needs and deficit of IAS talent and resources. The Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) was established in June of 2001.

UTSA was the first Texas university and one of 59 in the nation with the "Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education" designation by the National Security Agency (NSA). The designation means UTSA's curriculum and faculty meet or exceed NSA standards to teach information-assurance security and makes the university eligible to apply for grants from NSA and the National Science Foundation. CIAS is part of UTSA's newly created Institute for the Protection of American Communities, an institute established to provide technical expertise and solutions to security challenges faced by communities. For more information, contact Kris Rodriguez, public relations specialist, at [email protected].