[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 7045]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY

 Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I am proud to rise today to 
commend Dakota State University in Madison, SD, for its outstanding 
commitment to the national security of the United States through Dakota 
State University's information assurance program. The program has 
developed important technologies to protect community banks from 
information breaches, simultaneously training its undergraduate and 
graduate students to be leaders in this highly technical field.
  In 2004, DSU was one of 10 universities receiving National Security 
Agency designation for this bank-focused program and DSU is the only 
National Center of Academic Excellence in information assurance that 
tailors its information assurance curriculum to the banking industry. 
Recent security breaches by information brokers and financial 
institutions highlight the importance of DSU's work in this area. I 
believe strongly that the future of information security will include a 
combination of careful review and oversight of laws, but also looking 
to security innovators like DSU and other institutions around the 
country to protect our financial information.
  As security innovators, graduates and employees of Dakota State 
University have engineered a new information technology security 
company called Secure Banking Solutions, SBS. With 93 banks in South 
Dakota, SBS will soon be able to provide IT security to most of the 
community banks in my home State, as well as to protect the personal 
information of the hardworking South Dakotans that bank at those 
institutions.
  The Independent Community Bankers of South Dakota and I have 
encouraged the replication of the SBS model in other States. The 
security of banking in all of South Dakota has been greatly enhanced by 
the university's commitment to innovation in the area of IT security, 
and I thank Dakota State University for its pioneering leadership in 
this arena.

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