Center for Cybersecurity
The South Carolina Research Authority is leading the new South Carolina Center for Cybersecurity. The Center will lead the state’s cybersecurity strategic plan, developed from a multi-year, comprehensive study completed in 2024 that assessed the state’s needs, assets, and challenges.
About the Center
Notably, whereas some states use the term “whole-of-state cybersecurity” to refer only to securing state government systems, South Carolina’s strategic plan refers to a true ‘whole-of-state’—statewide plan that includes cybersecurity in education, workforce development, defense partnerships, economic growth, prevention and response capabilities for our state and local government agencies, businesses, and citizens.
SCRA’s Center of Cybersecurity will drive the implementation and progress in coordination with the following stakeholders and partners: the Office of the Governor, S.C. Department of Commerce, S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce, S.C. Department of Education and school district leaders across the state, S.C. Technical College System, S.C. Council on Competitiveness, S.C. Department of Veterans Affairs, S.C. Department of Administration, S.C. Law Enforcement Division, Savannah River National Laboratory, public and private universities across the state, cybersecurity companies and professional associations across the state.
A twenty-year veteran of federal and state initiatives, cybersecurity expert Brian Shea will lead the Center at SCRA and provide regular updates on the plan’s implementation to the Office of the Governor.
About Brian Shea
Brian Shea is a co-founder and principal at Simon Everett, Ltd., an analytic design firm. He supports clients across a wide range of disciplines and domains in developing tailored frameworks to address strategic planning needs, business challenges, and organizational risks. For the past 20 years, he has led a wide variety of projects to address federal and state government challenges by coordinating among government agencies, defense, law enforcement, and intelligence community partners, academic institutions, the private sector, and non-profit organizations.
He has specialized experience in designing and leading state- and region-level projects to assess the cybersecurity industry, workforce, and enabling asset environments; and to improve coordination and cohesiveness across multi-stakeholder cybersecurity ecosystems. Through these efforts, he has led and supported the development of cybersecurity studies and strategic plans in five states, including South Carolina. His experience in South Carolina also includes providing strategic planning assistance to the University of South Carolina, the South Coast Cyber Center, the Beaufort Digital Corridor, and 24 companies across the state in support of a program led by the SC Department of Commerce and the SC Department of Employment and Workforce.
Previously, he served on active duty in the Air Force for 12 years as an Arabic Language Intelligence Analyst and Arabic Language Instructor, including 6 years at the National Security Agency.
