May 6, 2004
Cybersecurity: New center brings together experts from UW, other area institutions
Professors from colleges and universities across the region have organized a new computer-security consortium through the UW, and a recently awarded federal designation for the effort is expected to benefit students, researchers, industry and governments in the Pacific Northwest.
Following a rigorous screening process, the National Security Agency recently designated the UW a national “Center of Excellence in Information Assurance Education.”
The center involves faculty from the Institute of Technology at the UW Tacoma, the UW Seattle’s Computer Science & Engineering and Electrical Engineering departments, the UW Information School, UW Tacoma ‘s Milgard School of Business, Pacific Lutheran University, Seattle University, Idaho State University, Highline Community College, Bellevue Community College, Olympic College and Shoreline Community College.
Twenty-five universities applied this year for the NSA designation. The 10 selected, including the UW, will be recognized at a June 8 ceremony at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., during a national colloquium for information systems security education.
“Not only does this NSA designation show we are capable of doing some of the most advanced work in the nation in the field of cybersecurity and information assurance, it opens the door to federal grants as well as scholarships for students,” says Steve Hanks, director of the UW Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity and a professor at UW Tacoma’s Institute of Technology.
The faculty involved with the center will be innovators providing leadership to protect public and private information infrastructures throughout the Northwest. They will also educate professionals on the latest and most effective methods for protecting computer systems.
The UW center will support certification courses provided by community and technical colleges, as well as computer science bachelor’s and master’s degree programs focused on cybersecurity. It will also offer workshops, seminars and other professional development opportunities. Doctoral faculty will lead research efforts.
“The center will become an axis for researchers, educators and practitioners from industry and government to work together in protecting networked infrastructures from all kinds of threats, including mobile program code attacks, worms, viruses and denial-of-service attacks,” says Radha Poovendran, associate director for research.
“It will definitely focus on age-old protections like encryption, backup and recovery, systems access control and disaster recovery,” he added. “Explosive growth in wireless and sensor network applications will further fuel the ongoing research in wireless security at Washington.”
The National Science Foundation, Army Research Office, Office of Naval Research and Army Research Laboratory, as well as the Boeing Company, have been funding the wireless security research at the UW, Poovendran says. “It is great to get NSA support as well.”
Center participants believe their work will sustain the vitality of Northwest industries and help attract new businesses to the region. The center will generate inventions, public awareness efforts and research. Entrepreneurs will be encouraged and supported. Further, the center will be involved in incident forensics, a field that has been dramatized recently in several popular television shows.
“The center is brand-new, but the faculty involved are among the most seasoned researchers and educators found anywhere,” says David Dittrich, a computer forensics expert at the UW Information School. The UW, in conjunction with a Seattle computer-security group called Agora, has participated in several cutting-edge national cyberdefense exercises and workshops.
“The ‘NSA Center of Excellence’ designation will help us establish and attract the kind of funding, researchers, professionals and students that will produce some great research and educational opportunities and continue to enhance cybersecurity in this region and nationwide,” Dittrich says.
UW Tacoma supporters are also enthusiastic about the economic development prospects for the center of excellence. The Institute of Technology was established in part to be an economic development engine in the South Sound, and its leadership role with the new center promises to help fulfill that mission.
“If we have leading-edge work being done by professors collaborating here in Tacoma, in Seattle and as far east as Boise, we will likely see industry growth among businesses engaged in cybersecurity, as well as in the businesses and industries that depend on it,” says Larry Crum, director of the Institute of Technology at UW Tacoma. “Organizations like the Port of Tacoma are increasingly dependent on all kinds of security from a range of international threats. The benefits of this center, and its strong presence in the South Sound, will be far-reaching.”
For more information about the UW Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity, call 253-692-5866.
