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SURA: IT Initiatives:
Infrastructure Development & Deployment
NSF Middleware Initiative (NMI) | SURA Crossroads Initiative | SURA Optical Networking Cookbook | SURA Cybersecurity Working Group | Regional Network Aggregations
SURA Cybersecurity Working Group
The SURA Cybersecurity Working Group was formed in July 2002 and is being led by Joy Hughes V.P.I.T. and CIO for George Mason University. The working group has three major goals:
- Promote the development and use of cybersecurity policies, practices, and technologies specifically appropriate for research universities so that cyber terrorists are prevented from launching attacks upon or through university cyber systems. This includes the need for SURA universities to improve their own security infrastructure to gain additional funding to support this.
- Promote the development of innovative strategies to increase the security, interoperability and responsiveness of regional and national communication networks, particularly those supporting activities that are key foci for national safety. This includes obtaining funding for projects that increase the security of communication networks and, at a minimum, ensuring the secure connectedness of the telehealth networks of the Southern states. The group would like to partner with initiatives that are similarly focused.
- Establish a position in existing national efforts that are underway and seek to lead in cases where a regional approach can contribute necessary fuel to developments that are already underway and also raise the visibility of SURA members' activities and research programs in this critical area.
The group recently received joint funding from SURA, the Critical Infrastructure Project (a joint project of GMU and JMU) and the Instructional Foundation to undertake the following specific activities towards these broader goals:
- Conduct a security survey of the SURA institutions and use this data to identify the chief security officer at each institution, faculty currently engaged in cybersecurity research and education and best practices in cybersecurity operations at each university.
- Organize a conference to bring together members of the above groups with representatives of the agencies that are funding cybersecurity research and with selected vendors interested in engaging in research partnerships.
- Develop an online directory of security resources, including security researchers, security educators, and security officers at SURA institutions. This would include a database of SURA institutionsÍ best practices in various aspects of university security and a white paper based on the discussions at the conference that will propose partnerships and strategies to increase security and security research funding at SURA institutions.
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