Cyber security briefing with permission of reporter

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Patrick Kelly <irish1618 () GMAIL COM>
Date: July 28, 2009 12:49:56 AM EDT
To: USACM-SECPRIV () LISTSERV ACM ORG
Subject: Re: Cyber security briefing
Reply-To: Patrick Kelly <irish1618 () GMAIL COM>

Good evening everyone,

I was able to attend the CSIS Panel on the hill today and didn't  
recognize anyone from the USACM so I thought I would send a quick  
update on the event.

The short and sweet version is that CSIS (and the SANS Institute)  
officially annoucned the US Cyber Challenge(s): http://csis.org/uscc  
or http://www.sans.org/uscc

For the long version:

The US Cyber Challenge is a series of existing competitions brought  
together to attract untapped talent from around the country - high  
school through post-graduate levels.  The three competitions are as  
follows:

CyberPatriot Defense Competition
https://registration.afa.org/reg/reg1.aspx?event=cyber2010&regtype=RequestInfo

DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge
http://www.dc3.mil/challenge/

Netwars Capture-the-Flag Competition
http://www.sans.org/netwars/

For the event itself, James Lewis, CSIS, and Alan Paller, SANS,  
provided introductions and moderated the event.

Dick Schaeffer, NSA, offered opening remarks and commentary on the  
state of cyber security recruiting.  He offered up the recently  
released Partnership for Public Service & Booz Allen Hamilton report  
as evidence: http://ourpublicservice.org/OPS/publications/viewcontentdetails.php?id=135

Steven Shirley, DC3, commented on the origins of the DC3 forensics  
competition and how positive the responses have been in recent years.

Sandy Schlitt, Board for Aerospace Education, gave a brief update on  
the successful trial run of the CyberPatriot Defense Competition in  
January and a status check for the next round of competition that  
closes in September.  Thus far the competition has attracted 270 high  
school teams from 44 states, plus Japan and South Korea - well beyond  
their initial goal of 25 teams.

Greg White, University of Texas, offered information regarding the  
development of the cyber competitions and success in getting students  
interested in the field.

James Shewmaker, key developer of the SANS NetWars project, gave an  
update of the virtual, scalable platform he developed with a synopsis  
of the success of the first round of competition.  The platform is a  
small, stripped down linux distribution that must be cracked before  
the user can enter the online competition.  It's designed for entry  
level competitors but offers additional levels for more advanced  
users.  Once a user has achieved 500 points, they are entered into a  
higher rung of competition to provide additional challenges and give  
new entrants a fighting chance.  It sounds as though the project is  
still underdevelopment but, from his description, it's off to a good  
start.

Lastly, Peter Fonash, NCSD DHS, delivered closing remarks and provided  
general information about efferts underway regarding Critical  
Infrastructure Protection, growth at US-CERT and their involvement in  
the Scholarship for Service/CyberCorp Program.

For additional documentation, the White House offers an breakdown of  
the initiative here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/cyber/The%20United%20States%20Cyber%20Challenge%201.1%20%28updated%205-8-09%29.pdf

Or you can read more about it at any one of the dozen or so articles  
here:
http://news.google.com/news/more?um=1&ned=us&cf=all&ncl=dbzycE-xTVspJNMPL8WocXZiKZn4M


- PJ


On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 8:22 AM, Cameron Wilson  
<cwilson.acm () gmail com> wrote:
For those that are local to DC:

Cyber Security Challenges
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Panel Discussion
Center for Strategic and International Studies holds a discussion  
titled "U.S. Cyber Challenge - Can We Catch Up?
Contact: Denise Zheng at 202-775-3175 techpolicy () csis org
Note: E-mail RSVP to contact.
For further information: http://csis.org/event/us-cyber-challenge-can-we-catch
New
Date    Monday, July 27, 11:30 a.m.
Place   1539 Longworth Bldg.
Participants    
Richard Schaeffer, director of information assurance, National  
Security Agency
Steven D. Shirley, executive director, Cyber Crime Center (DC3),  
Department of Defense
S. Sanford Schlitt, vice chairman of the board for aerospace  
education, Air Force Association
Greg White, professor of computer science, University of Texas at San  
Antonio, and director, Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security

Sent from my iPhone please excuse typos





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