American universities are hotspots for innovation and research, drawing hundreds of thousands of students from around the globe to the United States with the intent to learn—and some with the intent to steal. America’s universities must protect the research funded with billions of dollars invested by U.S. federal and state governments from bad actors sponsored by foreign corporations and governments.

Government-funded projects at U.S. universities have led to advancements in everyday life including the MRI, modern communication devices and the internet. In addition, today’s leading companies, including Google, Cisco Systems and CREE, originated from government-funded research. Because of these successes, foreign nations target U.S. universities to steal emerging technology and shortcut their own research requirements. Universities must continue to protect the international research community fostered with true end-to-end security for user access and protection of data at rest, in motion, and in process.

Texas A&M is a leading university in research. SPYRUS is working with the Texas A&M University System to deploying a model solution that will allow researchers in higher education to meet the requirements for Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information in Non-federal Systems and Organizations, which is stipulated by the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) clause 252.204-7012 in accordance with NIST SP 800-171. Just as our corporations have taken security threats seriously, our universities and university systems must do so as well, and Dr. Kevin Gamache’s approach could be a model for others to emulate.

Read more about this approach at Security Magazine.