IU to protect cyberspace from terrorist attacks

In an effort to enhance the security of the nation's cyber infrastructure, IU recently signed an agreement to cooperate with the National Infrastructure Protection Center in Washington, D.C. The agreement is a response to President Bush's "National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace," a plan which includes a call for the establishment of academic centers for security research and training to advance cooperation between government and industry.\nThe NIPC, a part of the new Homeland Security Department, is a national organization responsible for gathering information on threats to critical national infrastructures such as water, energy, transportation, government and technology. The NIPC investigates threats and organizes the federal response to any terrorist act that might occur. The center is linked electronically to both the federal government and Information Sharing and Analysis Centers and passes vital security information between the two groups when necessary. \nAn ISAC is a group of organizations in a particular area of the economy which come together to share and analyze information about threats and then develop ways to defend their particular infrastructures.\nIU has been selectively chosen to be the only Research and Education Network Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which means IU is the only University to be teamed with the NIPC to protect the national higher education cyber-infrastructures. \nThe NIPC and the REN-ISAC will mutually share information regarding possible attacks or threats. \n"IU will ensure that the research and education network operators receive the most current counter-terrorist threat alerts, warnings and analysis," according to an NIPC statement. \nMark Bruhn, IU's Chief Information Technology Security and Policy Officer, is now the acting director of the REN-ISAC. Bruhn said IU is prepared to improve the security of the IU infrastructure as well as all higher education and national cyber-infrastructures. \n"The benefit to higher education is that we will now be getting and sharing this security information from sources that we did not have before," Bruhn said. "In the past, if other organizations experienced security problems that could potentially impact our campuses, we didn't know. Now, because we are participating in this sharing infrastructure, the REN-ISAC will receive, triage, analyze and then report to universities and colleges so they may be better prepared to deal with threats."\nIU benefits directly from the agreement.\n"We will have information more quickly and can make sure we mitigate the risk of the event occurring here before it impacts our specific campuses," Bruhn said. \nBruhn said IU was selected because it was uniquely positioned to provide this information service to higher education and to the nation. For one, the Global Network Operations Center based at IUPUI manages several research and education high-speed networks, including the next generation Internet, the Internet2 Abilene network. Internet2 is a membership-based research and development consortium led by 200 universities across the nation, including IU. IU also plays a role in its operation in that the GNOC is the home to the Abilene network, a key network in Internet2's infrastructures. \nGreg Wood, director of Communications at Internet2, said the REN-ISAC is an important development. \n"The REN-ISAC demonstrates that higher education is dedicated to making security a priority," Wood said. "IU has taken a leadership position in cyber-security and is powerfully responding to Bush's requests for secure networks."\nIU also has some of the best network and security engineers in higher education, if not the country, Bruhn said. The Applied Network Management Lab, funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, also plays a part in supporting the REN-ISAC. The Lab develops security detection tools and response procedures. \nThis advanced technology has put IU in a position to play a part in the war against terrorism. The nation's networks carry critical information and an attack on both the national and higher education infrastructures could be devastating, Bruhn said. \nThe sharing of vital knowledge about warnings and threats between the NIPC and various ISAC's throughout the country, such as the REN-ISAC, is imperative to the nation's homeland security.