Tyler Daugherty

Things Texas Takes Seriously: 1. Cowboy Hats 🤠 2. Not messing with it 🗑 3. Cybersecurity 🔒 Texas’s very own TX-RAMP Certification is becoming increasingly in-demand. Why? Well, Texas has done a few things right to make the cert stick: 1️⃣ It created an achievable standard based on the NIST SP 800-53 framework and provided clear use-cases. 2️⃣ It significantly reduced the audit burden on private companies. The Texas Department of Information Resources performs the certifying assessment – NOT an auditor. 3️⃣ It passed legislation requiring all vendors providing cloud-based services to Texas state agencies and higher education institutions to become TX-RAMP certified. It turns out that, when required by law to get certified or risk losing a big customer, vendors tend to get certified! We have helped a number of customers with TX-RAMP. But, we regularly get smaller companies asking us for help. We can't economically service them. Well, we couldn't... until now! We are announcing TX-RAMP Champ. TX-RAMP Champ allows small companies to get TX-RAMP certified with half the effort. We provide the templates needed, video to explain how to use the templates and access to our experts to help. Rob, that sounds amazing but I want to try it out without having to pay. Imaginary person, that's why we have a 45-day trial option to try out the tool. You can sign up from this link: https://lnkd.in/eFgAQfkx Don't want to sign up? We have a bunch of free resources for learning about TX-RAMP on our TX-RAMP Champ page. Of course, you could sign up for our TX-RAMP Complete and get all of the TX-RAMP resources including: - TX-RAMP Security Plan Workbook with Sample Answers for all Controls - Complete TX-RAMP Documentation Template Library - Complete Training Video Library - Access to one-on-one chats with U.S.-based TX-RAMP efforts - 2 live session reviews of TX-RAMP deliverables What do you think about a solution for helping with TX-RAMP? Do you know someone who is struggling with TX-RAMP and would like a speed boost? Tag them, please!!!

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📢 Just Released: Texas Cyber Security 2025 Annual Report In the lead-up to the Lone Star Cyber Summit (Austin | Oct 14–15, 2025), we’ve compiled an exclusive look at the state’s evolving cyber threat landscape, featuring insights and interviews from Texas’ leading CISOs on this year’s Steering Committee. Inside the report: 🔍 Key cyber trends shaping Texas’ core industries 💬 Expert commentary from senior security leaders 📊 Data-driven analysis of the shifting threat environment 📌 What to expect (and prepare for) in 2025 and beyond If you’re an IT security professional in Texas, this is your must-read pre-event briefing. 📥 Download your free copy now: https://lnkd.in/dY6hPYZP #LoneStarCyber #CyberSecurity

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Credit to Reese Tuttle and AP2T Labs for pointing this out! Texas’ Cyber Training Rubric is the “No Child Left Behind” of Cybersecurity You’ve heard of No Child Left Behind? Well Texas just gave cybersecurity training its own version. If you want access to any Texas state system, you don’t get to pick your own training. You have to go through a TX DIR-approved course every year and prove you did it. That’s a rubric, not a suggestion. That means: • Texas sets the exact baseline everyone has to hit. • Only approved providers count. • Compliance isn’t optional or assumed. This isn’t about turning everyone into a security expert. This is about not failing an audit, a contract review, or a renewal because someone assumed “they did the training.” That’s where most problems happen. Meanwhile in Georgia, annual cybersecurity awareness training is required for state agencies and contractors, but it’s driven by internal policy and documentation, not a centralized rubric that dictates approved providers for every vendor. Honestly, I’m glad Georgia doesn’t have a Texas-style regimen yet, and I hope other states don’t go that route either. Want help with aligning your team’s cybersecurity training and compliance processes so you aren’t guessing what counts? Let’s talk.

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Wrapped up my session today at TASSCC in San Antonio: “Strategy Meets Tactics: Weaponizing the Texas Cybersecurity Framework with MITRE ATT&CK Intelligence.” Too often in government, we treat cybersecurity frameworks as checklists. They look good in audits, but they don’t stop an adversary from moving laterally across your environment. That’s where the rubber meets the road: operationalizing TCF with ATT&CK gives agencies a playbook to validate controls, hunt threats, and measure resilience against real-world adversary behavior. For leaders, this isn’t just about compliance - it’s about capability. For defenders, it’s about closing the gaps that attackers count on. The key takeaway: “Frameworks don’t defend - actions do.” Texas is showing how strategy and tactics can fuse to strengthen resilience. The question now is: will your agency operationalize, or will you remain in checkbox mode? #Cybersecurity MITRE ATT&CK #ZeroTrust #PublicSector Fortinet #tasscc25 TASSCC

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💫 TxCR’s Summer: GenCyber Camp 2025 This summer, the Texas Cyber Range supported the Texas A&M GenCyber Camp by provisioning individual Kali Linux VMs to high school students participating in hands-on cybersecurity training. Using our virtual infrastructure, students accessed preconfigured environments to conduct digital forensic investigations, including analyzing USB drive images, recovering deleted files, and practicing real-world evidence handling using tools like Autopsy. The TxCR provided each GenCyber participant with a secure, isolated VM, enabling hands-on experience in an enterprise-grade environment without local installs. We’re proud to support initiatives like GenCyber as we work toward scalable, secure infrastructure for cybersecurity education. #TexasCyberRange #GenCyber #CyberAggies #DigitalForensics #CybersecurityEducation #HandsOnLearning

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