Congressional staff visit highlights DSU’s role in rural broadband and cybersecurity

August 12, 2026

MADISON, S.D. - Fourteen congressional staff members from across the country visited Dakota State University on Tuesday, Aug. 11, to learn how South Dakota has expanded rural broadband and how DSU helps communities use and protect the technology that connectivity makes possible.

Staff members representing U.S. House and Senate offices and congressional committees visited as part of a multistate educational tour focused on broadband's role in rural communities. At DSU, they heard how connectivity supports education, workforce development, government services, healthcare, agriculture, research, and economic opportunity.

Mike Waldner, DSU's director of SecureSD and Project Boundary Fence, spoke with the group about South Dakota's broadband development and the University's involvement throughout that work.

"DSU was intertwined in just about every step along the way," Waldner said. "We've done a lot of things with technology on a statewide basis, and they really wanted to hear the South Dakota story - what we have done dating back to 1999 and 2000, and how that work has grown into all of the technology we're using now."

Waldner said one of South Dakota's strengths is its ability to bring organizations together around statewide technology projects. That collaboration allows communities to share resources, reduce costs, and maintain systems that continue to produce value decades later.

"I think we do an extremely good job of pulling together," he said. "If we continue to come together and do these statewide projects, we can create economies of scale and make them less expensive for taxpayers across the entire state."

The visit also gave staff members a look at the next stage of that work: protecting the networks, public services, and sensitive information that increasingly depend on broadband. Waldner said he hopes visitors will take South Dakota's collaborative approach back to the members of Congress and communities they serve.

"I hope it shows congressional staffers from other states a model they can take back with them," Waldner said. "When we do things on a statewide basis, we can gather information efficiently and make better, data-driven decisions down the road."

Dr. Ashley Podhradsky, vice president for Research and Economic Development, led the group through the Madison Cyber Labs (MadLabs®), where staff members learned about DSU research, outreach, and public-service initiatives, including the Project Boundary Fence and SecureSD. Podhradsky is also a member of the Governor's Resilience and Infrastructure Task Force (GRIT), which supports statewide resilience priorities across various sectors.

Project Boundary Fence provides free penetration testing and risk assessments to South Dakota county and city governments, helping them identify vulnerabilities and strengthen their networks before cyberattacks occur.

SecureSD works with municipalities, counties, and water systems to improve their cybersecurity through technical assistance, secure technology solutions, training, and incident-response planning.

Waldner said the combination of broadband access, statewide coordination, and cybersecurity expertise positions South Dakota and DSU to remain at the forefront of emerging technology.

"Some of the technologies our students are working on are amazing," he said. "Our faculty are top-notch, and whether it's quantum computing, artificial intelligence, or cybersecurity, DSU is already at the forefront."

Tags: Academics All News Cyber Research The Beacom College of Computer & Cyber Sciences