The mission of the institute is to:

• Identify and solve modern security challenges in the areas of cyber, transportation, critical infrastructure, and food/water;
• Establish and grow partnerships with industry professionals to ensure that the security research retains significant and practical impacts;
• Develop and support educational initiatives that continuously evolve with state-of-the-art security issues and technologies in all thrust areas;
• Serve as the Arkansas’ source for communication and awareness of security threats, solutions, and needs.

The role of the institute is to bring important practical security problems to the most talented University of Arkansas’ researchers, to recruit industry members to sustain the institute and provide research and educational vision, to assist institute’s researchers in pursuing competitive research funding, and to facilitate improving the security education at the University of Arkansas.