Category: News

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.

Source: John Hollis from George Mason University News on February 2nd, 2018.

Virginia counties figure to be at the front lines in the battle for cybersecurity, so George Mason University’s J.P. Auffret and Angelos Stavrou are helping them formulate a more cohesive defense with a grant that partners them with local governments.