E-news Online November 2010

U.Va. Engineering School to Host Workshop on ‘Rethinking Cybersecurity: A Systems Based Approach’

Although current approaches to cybersecurity focus mostly on mitigation strategies that address specific vulnerabilities, experts in the field are advocating for a more systemic approach, one that considers all facets of security, not just technological fixes.

To that end, faculty members from the U.Va. Department of Systems and Information Engineering, as well as specialists from across the country, will participate in an upcoming workshop for cybersecurity experts, government officials and academic researchers to discuss emerging trends in systems-based cybersecurity.

“Rethinking Cybersecurity: A Systems Based Approach” will be held Nov. 16 and 17 at the Darden School of Business. The event is being presented by U.Va.’s Center for Risk Management of Engineering Systems, along with the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection, also known as the I3P, a 27-member research consortium managed by Dartmouth College. This is the fourth in a series of annual cybersecurity workshops hosted by the two organizations.

“This workshop brings together leading cybersecurity experts from across the U.S. with the business community at large,” said Barry Horowitz, chair of the U.Va. Department of Systems and Information Engineering and co-chair of the workshop. “Through topic-specific lectures and networking sessions, we aim to increase participants’ knowledge about the systemic nature of cybersecurity and how to protect organizations from attack.”

Currently, most cybersecurity technologies rely on perimeter defenses such as passwords, network firewalls and virus protection software. Workshop participants will examine top-down approaches to security, looking at such varied components as domain applications, organizational risks, policy and procedural solutions, and cultural and human factors. One challenge is to find solutions that are specific to the systems they are protecting; another challenge is to figure out how to integrate human behavior into the security equation.

The workshop will also cover such topics as resilience, data integrity, system operator tools and real-time oversight, along with cloud computing and strategies for fostering better collaboration among government and industry groups in the quest for systemic security.

“We are pleased to see our faculty members provide this kind of leadership on the national scene in an important technology area,” said Tom Skalak, vice president for research at the University of Virginia.

The workshop will feature keynote addresses from Robert Cary, former chief information officer for the Department of the Navy, and Rich Pethia, director of the CERT® Program at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute.

You can register online for this workshop at: http://www.regonline.com/register/checkin.aspx?EventId=890221

For information, contact Erika Evans at 434.924.0960 or eevans@virginia.edu.

 

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