Dr. JP Auffret to give talk entitled, “CIO, IT Executive Leadership and Innovation & Application of Blockchain,” on October 3, 2018, at APEC TEL 58 in Taipei. For more information, please go to: https://www.apectel58.org/.
Author: Christina Batcheler
Dr. JP Auffret to give talk entitled, “CIOs, IT Executive Leadership and Innovations in ICT and Technology: From Mobiles to Robotics, AI, Drones and Blockchain” to the Kazakhstan Government IT managers and executives right before the “Digital Transformation and the role of #CIO” conference which is organized by IDC, Society of IT Managers of Kazakhstan & International Academy of CIO For more information: http://www.iacio.org/13th-iac.htm.
With speakers from as far as Japan and from cyber start-ups, government and universities and audiences from across the Washington region, the Mason Cybersecurity Innovation Forum completed its fifth year in April.
Sponsored by the Volgenau School of Engineering’s Center for Assurance and Research & Engineering (CARE) and the School of Business, the Cybersecurity Innovation Forum Series is for professionals looking to discover the newest innovations in cybersecurity. Held quarterly, the 2-hour Forums consists of a series of 15-20 minute case study presentations by cybersecurity experts and technology innovators followed by a panel discussion and Q&A, moderated by Professor, J.P. Auffret, Director, Research Partnerships and Grants Initiative, School of Business; and Associate Director, Center for Assurance Research and Engineering, School of Engineering (CARE) and President of International Academy of CIO. The focus of the events are on cybersecurity innovation including innovation rationale and motivation, technology, metrics and lessons learned. The Cybersecurity Innovation Forum Group on Meetup has nearly 3,000 members.
Chet Hosmer, Founder, Python Forensics and a second time speaker traveled up from his offices in South Carolina and gave a talk on an innovative sensor systems from identifying anomalous network traffic in industrial systems such as chemical plants.
Beverly Allen, Host of Practical Security at Arlington Independent Media (https://www.arlingtonmedia.org/ and WERA 96.7) added “Nothing we’re doing now on the national level suggests that we’re taking Cybersecurity as seriously as we should. We need a focused, sustained national initiative for public Cybersecurity education and awareness. Much like we had with Smokey the Bear in preventing forest fires; or NHTSA’s “Buckle-up” campaign promoting seat belt use to increase survival rates in motor vehicle accidents (who can forget those crash test dummies?); or the current concerted effort combining TV, radio and other high-visibility resources to combat the opioid epidemic.”
Other 2017-2018 speakers included:
- Brian Christos, CEO, Head of Product, Active Canopy
- Duncan Sparrell, sFractal Consulting, LLC
- Mohamoud Jibrell, Chief Executive Officer, and Candan Bolukabas, Chief Information Officer, NormShield
- Tosho Obi, President, APEC e-Government Research Center; Chair, National e-Government Promotion Council of Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Professor and Director of Waseda University Institute of e-Government and President of International Academy of CIO
- Naoko Iwasaki, Professor, Institute of e-Government, Waseda University and President International Academy of CIO, Japan Chapter
- Georgia Weidman, Founder of Bulb Security
- Dmitry Dain, Co-founder, Virgil Security
- Kevin McGrail, Apache
The first 2018-2019 Cybersecurity Innovation Forum is slated for October. Sign up on Meetup here to receive updates.
For a full listing of previous speakers spanning the last 5 years, please go here.
To view presentations from our Forums, please go to: http://business.gmu.edu/partnerships-grants/cyberconference/.
Written by Nanci Hellmich
“Mason Engineering has a robust cybersecurity program that crosses disciplinary engineering boundaries and includes robots, drones, autonomous vehicles, health care, smart cities, and the electrical grid,” says J.P. Auffret, PhD, Associate Director, Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE), Volgenau School of Engineering and Director, Research Partnerships and Grants Initiative, School of Business.
Mason Engineering cybersecurity experts will give an overview of the school’s recent advances in cyber research at a breakfast Tuesday, May 15.
Dean Ken Ball is hosting the briefing for industry and government partners at the Center for the Arts Building on the Fairfax Campus. About 100 leaders in cybersecurity are expected to attend.
“Mason Engineering has a robust cybersecurity program that crosses disciplinary engineering boundaries and includes robots, drones, autonomous vehicles, health care, smart cities, and the electrical grid,” says J. P. Auffret. “Our research is practice-oriented. The idea is to bring the innovations to industry and government.”
Liza Wilson Durant, Mason Engineering’s associate dean of strategic initiatives and community engagement, says, “Forums, such as the dean’s breakfast briefing, provide the opportunity for researchers to bring the latest results of their work directly to innovators in industry and government and engage in direct dialogue with the constituents of our research enterprise.”
Speakers include:
- Angelos Stavrou, director of CARE, who will discuss distributed defenses/distributed denial of service.
- Gheorghe Tecuci, professor of computer science, on evidence-based detection of advanced persistent threats.
Duminda Wijesekera, co-director of CARE and professor of computer science, on the safety of connected vehicular systems. - Mark Pullen, director of the Center of Excellence in Command, Control, Communications, Computing, Intelligence, and Cyber, on coalition military training for cyber-active environments based on C2-simulation interoperation.
- Jim Jones, an associate professor in the digital forensics and cyber analysis program in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, on the decay and analysis of residual digital artifacts.
Bruce Maas, emeritus CIO, University of Wisconsin-Madison, on research and university CIO/CISO collaborations. - J. P. Auffret, associate director of CARE, on furthering local government cybersecurity capability and governance through cross jurisdiction partnering.
The event is by invitation only and aims to give industry and government partners and other guests a chance to meet Mason cyber faculty and hear about some of the school’s research activities.
Written by Christina Batcheler
Technology experts, policy makers, health care providers, architects, senior living community leaders, and educators gathered at George Mason University’s Founders Hall in Arlington for the Assistive Technology to Smart Homes and Senior Housing Design Conference. The conference featured ways the technology, real estate, and innovation communities can come together and collaborate to help develop transformational assistive technology products, services, and communities. The event was hosted by George Mason University‘s School of Business (Research Partnerships and Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship) and NoVaRHIO.
“We were pleased to collaborate on this conference as one of the topics of interest to the Center for Real Estate is the need for innovation in the design, development and construction of livable and accessible places for aging populations,” said Eric Maribojoc, Executive Director, Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship, School of Business, George Mason University. “This will require an inter-disciplinary and multi-industry approach. It was good to see professionals from healthcare, public agencies, education, design, and real estate come together to address these topics,” he added.
The morning conference featured a full line-up of prestigious experts in their fields, including Teresa Booher, Office of CIO, National Institutes of Health, Stephen King, Director of Office of Accessibility & Accommodations, U.S. Department of State, Chris Gordon, Principal, KGD Architects, John Scott, President and CEO, Scott-Long Construction and Matt Fowler, Director of Preconstruction, Scott-Long Construction, Steve Ruiz, Vice President, Moseley Architects, Gail Kutner, Arlington Commission on Aging, Robert Jarrin, Senior Director of Government Affairs, Qualcomm, Paul Schroeder, Director of Public Policy & Strategic Alliances, Aira, and Anthony Nunez, Founder & CEO, INF Robotics.
“The conference illuminated the unprecedented opportunities that technology has created for assistive solutions and senior smart homes and communities,” said J.P. Auffret, Ph.D. Director, Research Partnerships and Grants Initiative, School of Business; and Associate Director, Center for Assurance Research and Engineering, School of Engineering at Mason. “Many people walked away very excited about the new insights from case studies by experts experienced in developing and marketing products for people with disabilities,” he added.
Attendees learned about assistive technologies in the areas of sensing, cognitive and mobility and applicable for the visually and hearing impaired and aging populations; and about real estate and architecture innovation for senior communities and aging in place. Current approaches to community design and recent technology and architectural innovations bridging design and technology were also featured.
To view some of the presentations, please go to: http://business.gmu.edu/realestate/research/conference-and-panel-presentations/.
We are planning for a spring follow-on Assistive Technology, Smart Homes and Senior Housing Design conference – please let us know current topics you are interested in or suggestions and volunteers for speakers. In addition, if you are working on assistive technologies, smart homes and senior housing design and are interested in partnering on a research to practice initiative we would appreciate hearing from you. Please contact us at J.P. Auffret at jauffret@gmu.edu.
Written by Christina Batcheler
Mason’s School of Business, Mason’s Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE) and Montgomery Blair High School’s Cybersecurity Club in Maryland partnered for the second year in a row for the student-led Cybersecurity Capture the Flag (CTF) Competition, angstromCTF.
“We were honored to be chosen as the academic partner again for this incredible student-led cyber competition that drew in thousands of participants and challenged by a range of cyber problems. Mentoring the next generation of cyber enthusiasts is an important element to the success of solving our country’s cybersecurity problems,” said J.P. Auffret, PhD, Director, Research Partnerships, School of Business; and associate director, Center for Assurance Research and Engineering, School of Engineering.
The ångstromCTF is a student-led competition that is designed to educate and inspire high school students through interactive hacking challenges. Teams of one to five competitors from around the globe used the ångstromCTF platform to access challenges in diverse areas of cybersecurity including cryptography, binary exploitation, and digital forensics, submitting answers called flags for each problem.
In its first year, student-led angstromCTF was a huge success with nearly 500 teams participating from around the U.S.. The second year proved even more successful with the following statistics:
- 654 Scoring Teams
- 96% Would Play Again
- 25 Challenges
- 2,320 Correct Flags
- 205,575 Points Scored
- 91% New Participants
- 79 Countries
- 36 U.S. States
A capture the flag (CTF) contest is a special kind of cybersecurity competition designed to challenge its participants to solve computer security problems and/or capture and defend computer systems. Typically, these competitions are team-based and attract a diverse range of participants, including students, enthusiasts, and professionals. A CTF competition may take a few short hours, an entire day or even multiple days. CTF competitions give students the opportunity to explore the exciting field of cybersecurity by cracking problems that are designed to mirror real-world vulnerabilities. By providing a safe and beginner-friendly platform for practicing computer security skills, participants can have a practical, fun, and engaging introduction to cybersecurity. The competition also includes more challenging problems for experienced high school competitors who will be able to compete for prizes.The ångstromCTF high school team worked to expand access to ångstromCTF through the launch of its new learning platform, which serve to help students from all backgrounds to learn the basic concepts behind cybersecurity.
CTF competitions have elevated from their humble roots to reach sport-level status, with thousands of individual games and leagues now taking place every year across the globe — including the annual DEF CON competition, one of the most prestigious CTF events in the world.
The third student-led ångstromCTF competition is planned for this coming spring with Mason again joining as Academic Partner.
For more information about the Mason partnership, please contact Christina Batcheler at cbatchel@gmu.edu and to learn more and sign up for the next competition, please go to https://twitter.com/angstromctf or https://angstromctf.com.
Written by Christina Batcheler
J.P. Auffret, was elected as the third president of the International Academy of CIO (IAC) at the 12th IAC Annual Meeting and Conference held in Moscow in October.
Founded in 2006, the IAC (International Academy of CIO) is a global academic and professional society with co-founders including Japan, USA, Indonesia, Philippines, Switzerland, and Thailand. The IAC currently has active participation from about 50 countries and partnerships with U.N., APEC and OECD. IAC engages with governments, private sector and academia to further ICT leadership and governance and associated national ICT policies and institutions.
“I am very honored to be elected President of IAC and following on to Professor Pairash Thajchayapong, Thailand and Professor Toshio Obi, Japan. The IAC is very active around the world and with governments, private sector, and NGOs. The role contributes to greater Mason international visibility as well as furthers engagement on developing the potential of ICTs to contribute to addressing world current challenges,” said Dr. J.P. Auffret, IAC co-founder and professor at the School of Business, George Mason University.
The IAC’s initiatives include developing and publishing the annual IAC – Waseda International Digital Government Rankings (https://www.waseda.jp/top/en-news/53182 ) now in their thirteenth year; a Global eGovernance book series with IOS Press in Amsterdam and volumes including “ICT and Aging Society,” and “A Decade of eGovernment Rankings” (https://www.iospress.nl/bookserie/global-e-governance-series/ ); providing CIO Accreditation for masters’ degree CIO and IT executive leadership programs; publishing the Journal of CIO and Digital Innovation; hosting an annual conference next scheduled for September 2018, in Astana, Kazakhstan in partnership with the Society of IT Managers of Kazakhstan; and research projects including with APEC on ICT Governance and ICT and Aging Society.
In addition, the IAC works with governments in developing ICT leadership and governance policies and legislation.
Auffret will work with the IAC Executive Committee, Board and membership as President in many ways including increasing participation in Africa and South America; furthering IAC research and engagement on potential for ICT to contribute to addressing major challenges including on aging society and lessening the impact and recovering from natural disasters as well as on ICT innovation for SDGs, and cybersecurity.
The IAC is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and registered as an NPO in Japan with the IAC Secretariat based in Bangkok, Thailand.
For more information, please go to: http://www.academy-cio.org.
Written by Christina Batcheler
Two Mason Professors, J.P. Auffret and Angelos Stavrou have been awarded a $160,000 grant by the National Security Agency to develop Cybersecurity curricula for undergraduate, graduate, and executive education.
Dr. Angelos Stavrou, Professor of Computer Science, Volgenau School of Engineering and Director, Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE) and Dr. J.P. Auffret, Director, Research Partnerships, School of Business and Associate Director, CARE will work to support the NSA Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP) goals by engaging with industry and government to review and collate Enterprise Risk Management and Mobile Cybersecurity best practices and developing and making available and adopting Cybersecurity Core curricula and modules for Risk management and Wireless/Mobile.
“We’re very appreciative to NSA and are looking forward to engaging with industry and government practitioners in the challenging areas of enterprise risk management and mobile security and supporting NSA’s new initiative to develop a library and catalog of cybersecurity curricula and courses as a way to broaden the availability, depth and breadth of cybersecurity education,” said J.P. Auffret.
Risk management and mobile security are two of the more challenging areas of cybersecurity and in turn cybersecurity education. Risk management is the foundation for cybersecurity strategy and connects cybersecurity leadership and governance to cybersecurity operations. Mobile security is a challenge because of the rapid innovation and adoption of wireless / mobile technologies and the corresponding impact and risk of organizations and society. Risk management and mobile security are integrally linked in that mobile is one the most dynamic and current areas for risk management including in the ramifications of IoT and for critical infrastructure.
The project supports the NSA CNAP goals by developing and promoting Cybersecurity Core curricula and modules for Risk Management and Wireless / Mobile oriented towards potential US Federal Government cybersecurity leaders and staff. The modules will be in online and in person formats and for roles from practitioner to executive. The project includes three workshops for 100 participants as well as development of Risk Management and Wireless / Mobile Education Roadmap and Toolkits.
The project builds upon two National Science Foundation projects undertaken by Auffret and Stavrou – the first to develop core competencies for Chief Information Security Officers and the second to develop policy and legislative proposals to foster and facilitate cybersecurity partnering by municipal governments in areas such as governance, staffing and technology acquisition.
Written by Christina Batcheler
With speakers including Rick Howard, CSO, Palo Alto Networks and Mike Watson, CISO, Commonwealth of Virginia, the Mason Cybersecurity Leadership and Smart City Conference brought together 200 participants and speakers on March 13th in Arlington to discuss smart city innovation and associated cybersecurity challenges and strategies.
The conference, part of Mason’s NSF project to further cybersecurity partnering amongst cities and counties, builds upon a workshop held with Virginia city and county administrators and ICT and cybersecurity leaders in October and which identified Governance, Technology, Shared Staffing and Communications as promising partnering areas.
Mason project PI’s J.P. Auffret and Angelos Stavrou highlighted the challenge for many cities and counties which have limited budgets and IT expertise but often own and operate critical infrastructure including electric, water and transportation. Dave Jordan, CISO, Arlington County and a key partner of the NSF project, noted the importance of conferences such as these saying that the exchange of practices and insights with academia and private sector broadens city and county cybersecurity perspectives and contributes to furthering their cybersecurity strategies.
Conference highlights included:
- Rick Howard, CSO, Palo Alto Networks – Today’s cybersecurity environment and evolution of cybersecurity industry products from “defense in depth” to platforms.
- Tomohiko Arai, Science Counselor and Chief of Science section, The Embassy of Japan and Yoshihiro Katagiri, Director, North America Center, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) – Society 5.0 and Japan’s future vision for technology and society.
- Mike Watson, CISO, Commonwealth of Virginia, Dave Jordan, CISO, Arlington County, Annie Carlson, Director, IT, Town of Leesburg and Isaac Janak, Commonwealth of Virginia Office of the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security, Commonwealth of Virginia – Virginia state and local government and cybersecurity.
- David Metnick, Managing Director, Education, Health & Public Service, Accenture – Smart City Innovation.
The conference featured a full line-up of prestigious experts in cybersecurity and speakers also included: Rick Tracy, Senior Vice President, CSO, Telos, Michael Aisenberg, Principal Cyber Policy Analyst/Counsel, MITRE, Adam Sills, Head of Contract P&C Binding and Professional Liability, CapSpecialty, , Shaun Waterman, Freelance Journalist covering cybersecurity, Raghu Dev, World Wide Identity and Access Management Lead, IBM, Linton Wells II, Executive Advisor, C4I & Cyber Center, David Winks, Managing Director, AcquSight, Kevin Yin, CEO, SitScape and A.J. Nash, Intelligence Services Manager, Symantec.
Next steps for the NSF project are partnering with counties, towns and cities on regional workshops with administrators in the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula region and in the Leesburg, Loudoun and Purcellville region in May.
Conference partners and sponsors included Palo Alto Networks, Accenture, International Academy of CIO, Washington Innovation Network and Honeycomb IQ.
To view some of the presentations, please go to: http://business.gmu.edu/partnerships-grants/cyberconference.
This conference was part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) “City and County Cross Jurisdiction Cybersecurity Collaboration Capacity Building” grant awarded in summer 2016 to the Volgenau School of Engineering’s Center for Assurance Research and Engineering (CARE) and School of Business.
More information about the grant is here.