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The center is working to counter growing cyber threats through four research areas.

“One area addresses the issue of identifying weaknesses in computer software,” Chang said. “We are looking at what it would take to make software inherently more secure. This is a fundamental issue will go a long way to improve things.”

Right now, it takes less than a minute for a new computer with no virus protection to be attacked by something on the Internet.

“Software and applications don’t generally have security built in,” Chang said. “We put a wall around our computer environment because it isn’t secure and then continue to bolt on. We want to find what it would take to develop a system without all the bolt-on stuff.”

The center is also doing research and development on hardware and systems.

“In the state of security today something bad has to happen and then we have to react. We want to look at key areas and build reliable, dependable systems from the very beginning. It takes a very different approach,” Chang said.

The fourth area the center is working on focuses on research contracts with the U.S. Navy and other companies where it works to solve specific problems.

The center has made headway in its research but it is a slow process and for now Chang, who has curtailed his own online activity, advises people to do everything they can to secure their computer environment.

In addition to his work at the university, Chang is also tackling cyber security as part of a new Congressional Commission on Cyber Security, established to make sure the next president of the United States has an updated strategy to combat cyber threats.

He was appointed along with Admiral Bobby Inman, the Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Chair in National Policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

“Right now we are in a reactive mode and that’s a bad thing,” Chang said. “The attackers are gaining on us and we are operating from a position of disadvantage. Until we gain enough understanding to reverse the trend it will get worse.”