Louisiana is building a new cybersecurity center in Baton Rouge.
The newly named Louisiana Cyber Coordination Center, or LC3, has a few goals. It will support existing cyber missions at military sites like Fort Polk. It will also be used to help train members of the Louisiana National Guard, as well as to help defend governments and companies against a growing number of cyber attacks.
Just this summer, for example, several school districts in Louisiana were targeted. During an event announcing the new center, Governor John Bel Edwards said cyber attacks on the public sector are part of a new normal.
"We know that bad actors are out there and they’re very smart,” he said. “They're sophisticated and they’re studying and they’re getting better at what they do. And they’re going to try to exploit our systems for their own gain.”
Edwards called the center “another strategic asset in the fight against cyber criminals who wish to do us harm.”
Altogether, the state will spend about $2 million to create the center, which will be located at the Water Campus just south of downtown Baton Rouge.
