Announcement of Trusted CI Director Transition

Dear Trusted CI community, friends, and partners,

After 10 years of directing Trusted CI, I am stepping down as Trusted CI Director today. I thank all of you for your support over the past decade - you have made my job both a huge privilege and a pleasure. I also extend my gratitude to NSF for providing this unique opportunity.

I’m excited to share that Jim Basney has agreed to accept the role of Trusted CI Director. Jim has served as Trusted CI’s Deputy Director for the past three years and has been part of its leadership team since its inception. I suspect most of you already know Jim and will join me in my optimism that Jim will serve as an excellent leader for Trusted CI’s second decade.

I thank Jim for his contributions as deputy, which I found invaluable, and I’m happy to also share that Jim will receive similar support from Sean Peisert, who has agreed to serve as Trusted CI Deputy Director going forward. Since Sean joined Trusted CI in 2019 he has made strong leadership contributions, including serving as a co-PI the last year  and leading annual challenges and the OSCRP effort.

Kelli Shute will be staying on as Executive Director and has my thanks for her contributions in this role both past and into the future. Jim, Sean, and Kelli will be supported by the rest of the current leadership team: Kathy Benninger, Professor Bart Miller, and Mark Krenz.

I ask you to join me in congratulating Jim and Sean, and providing them and the rest of the team with the same support and collaboration going forward which you extended to me over the past decade. You can contact Jim and Sean directly at jbasney@illinois.edu and sppeisert@lbl.gov.

While my stepping down as Trusted CI Director is part of a larger life change I am making in that I will be leaving Indiana University at the end of the month, I will remain involved with Trusted CI to support this transition. 

Thank you, it has been an honor.

Von

Indiana University Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research releases an “ Effective Cybersecurity for Research” Whitepaper

 The tension between cybersecurity and research has kept institutional cybersecurity efforts for research confined to the most sensitive research, especially in academia.  Evolving threats and new cybersecurity requirements scoped beyond individual awards are now slated to change the status quo.  They point to a future where securing research holistically is no longer optional.  Indiana University’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research released a paper this week outlining an approach to cybersecurity for research that shows great promise in breaking the prevailing security versus research impasse. It focuses exclusively on the researcher and the research mission, reduces the cybersecurity and compliance burden on the researcher, and secures not only research subject to rules and regulations, but all research.  It is being embraced by researchers voluntarily and accelerating research measurably.

The paper can be accessed by visiting this EDUCAUSE library page:  Effective Cybersecurity for Research

2022 NSF Cybersecurity Summit- Call for Participation is now open- Submission deadline June 10th

We are pleased to announce that the 2022 NSF Cybersecurity Summit is taking place the week of October 17th with the training and workshops occurring on Tuesday, October 18th, and plenary sessions occurring on Wednesday, October 19th, and Thursday, October 20th. 

The final program is still evolving, but we will maintain our mission of providing a format designed to increase the NSF community’s understanding of cybersecurity strategies that strengthen trustworthy science: what data, processes, and systems are crucial to the scientific mission, what risks they face, and how to protect them. 

Call for Participation (CFP)

Program content for the Summit is driven by our community. We invite proposals for plenary presentations & workshops. The deadline for CFP submissions is July 8th. To learn more about the CFP, please visit: www.trustedci.org/2022-summit-cfp

Student Program

 To support workforce development, the Summit organizers invite several students to attend the Summit at no cost every year. Both undergraduate and graduate students may apply, and no specific major or course of study is required, as long as the student is interested in learning and applying cybersecurity innovations to scientific endeavors. To learn more about the student program, visit our website: https://www.trustedci.org/summit2022/students

On behalf of the 2022 NSF Cybersecurity Summit organizers and program committee, we welcome your participation and hope to see you in October.

More information can be found at: https://www.trustedci.org/2022-cybersecurity-summit

 

Better Scientific Software (BSSw) Helps Promote Trusted CI Guide to Securing Scientific Software

Trusted CI is grateful to Better Scientific Software (BSSw) for helping to publicize the results of Trusted CI’s software security study, including its recently published findings report and Guide to Securing Scientific Software (GS3), via its widely-read blog.  Read the full blog post here.

Trusted CI Webinar: Ransomware: Threats & Mitigations, June 27th @11am EST

This event was originally scheduled to occur on May 23rd and has been rescheduled to June 27th.

REN-ISAC's Sarah Bigham and Krysten Stevens will be presenting the talk, Ransomware: Threats & Mitigations, on Monday June 27th at 11am (Eastern).

Please register here.

The education industry has unceremoniously emerged as the second most common target for ransomware. It continues to evolve in how it is used as a fund-raiser for criminal organizations and how the technology works, to keep its victims guessing as to defense and eradication. Institutions face the difficult challenge of preserving academic freedom, easy access to information, and open collaboration while defending from threat actors who exploit these same characteristics. This presentation will focus on the current threats and provide guidance on protecting against ransomware attacks.

Speaker Bios:

Sarah Bigham: joined the REN-ISAC in March 2014. As Lead Security Analyst, her day-to-day responsibilities include managing the REN-ISAC Blended Threat  Workshops, working closely with the National Council of ISACs (NCI), FBI, DHS, and other state and federal peers to stay abreast of new and emerging threats, as well as special projects, and  member relations. Before coming to the REN-ISAC, Sarah worked at Harvard University as a Systems Support Specialist focusing on campus-wide Identity & Access Management (IdM) and HIPAA compliance for Harvard University Health Services. Prior to that, Sarah was a defense contractor at the United States Naval Academy where she focused on user and desktop support across the Yard for all faculty, staff, and midshipmen. Sarah holds an Associate of Applied Science in Computer Network Management from Anne Arundel Community College (Annapolis, MD) and a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems Management from University of Maryland Global Campus. 

Krysten Stevens joined REN-ISAC as Director of Technical Operations in 2020. She has a background in IT security analysis and cyber threat intelligence from Purdue University, where she used her leadership and expertise to train other security analysts, create security awareness programs, and develop threat intelligence strategies on an organizational level. Krysten graduated from Purdue University Global with an MS Cybersecurity Management in 2020, and she holds CISSP and GCTI certifications. When not at work, Krysten enjoys spending time with her husband, two children, five cats, and two golden retrievers (who refuse to retrieve).

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Join Trusted CI's announcements mailing list for information about upcoming events. To submit topics or requests to present, see our call for presentations. Archived presentations are available on our site under "Past Events."

Call for Trusted CI Framework Cohort Participation

 

The Framework Cohort is a six month, group engagement aimed at facilitating adoption and implementation of the Trusted CI Framework among NSF Major Facilities. During the engagement, members of the cohort will work closely with Trusted CI to adopt the Trusted CI  Framework at their facility, emerging with a validated assessment of their cybersecurity program and a strategic plan detailing their path to fully implement each Framework Must.Cohort members will participate in six monthly workshops (each three hours) and spend no more than eight hours each month outside of the workshops on cohort assignments. The second cohort will meet from July to December 2022.

 Since January 2022, Trusted CI has been working with six Major Facilities in the inaugural Framework cohort: GAGE, LIGO, NOIRLab, NRAO, NSO and OOI. As this inaugural Framework cohort approaches completion in June 2022, Trusted CI is looking for Major Facilities that are interested in participating in the upcoming second cohort.

 NSF Major Facilities interested in participating in the Framework cohort should respond to the call by completing the form at the bottom of this page: https://www.trustedci.org/trusted-ci-framework-cohort-participation. 

If you have any questions, please contact us at info@trustedci.org.

2022 NSF Summit Student Program-Call For Application

Every year, Trusted CI organizes and hosts the NSF Cybersecurity Summit to bring together leaders in NSF cybersecurity and cyberinfrastructure. To support workforce development, the Summit organizers invite several students to attend the Summit at no cost every year. Both undergraduate and graduate students may apply, no specific major or course of study is required, as long as the student is interested in learning and applying cybersecurity innovations to scientific endeavors.

Students may either self-nominate or be nominated by a mentor or teacher.

To be considered, students must submit a one-page letter (800-word maximum) describing their interest in and any relevant experience with cybersecurity, emphasizing the benefit to the student and/or community of their attendance at the Summit.

This letter must include the student's name, contact information, the institution of higher education of attendance, and their current expected year of graduation. A resume may be submitted in substitution for the requested information.

Up to fifteen successful student applicants will receive invitations to attend the Summit at no cost.

All applications will be reviewed by the Program Committee and students will be selected. The Program Committee will select students with an interest in advancing diversity and inclusiveness in the program.

The deadline for applications is August 1, 2022, with notification of acceptance to be sent by August 10, 2022.

Please discuss attendance with your instructors prior to attending.

 APPLY TO ATTEND SUMMIT (FORM)

For more information on the event itself, please visit: https://www.trustedci.org/2022-cybersecurity-summit

 Tips for Applying:

 The most successful applicants will...

• Be prepared to actively engage and participate with the programming.
• Make it known that they are interested in complex cybersecurity needs around and new, efficient, effective ways to protect information assets while supporting science, even if they are new to the subject matter - let the program committee know why you are interested in this subject matter ; and
• Relay at least 1-3 personal goals they would strive to meet while at the summit.

Highlighting these interests in the application will allow the review committee to understand why the student feels he or she will be best suited to attend the conference.

Send questions to students@trustedci.org