Norwich hosts 4th Annual Infrastructure Protection Conference

By Kara Swarbrick
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

Prostitution, homicide, organized crime and terrorism are just a few of the topics that students, faculty and guests learned about from Internet security experts at the 4th Annual E-Protect It Infrastructure Protection Conference hosted by Norwich University March 20-22, 2002.

Students and faculty gathered in Milano Ballroom for the E-protect It Infrastructure Security Conference, where speakers were invited to talk about topics such as information awareness, cyber crime, and cyber terrorism, among others.

"The conference was open to the student body; however, its purpose was to gather individuals from the professional arena to teach their community about information security awareness, preventative measures and maintenance, and case studies that help bolster future efforts in security," said Jessica Dunkel, a senior English major and communications minor, who also acted as the assistant director for this year's and last year's conference. "Make no mistake that now that Norwich has been considered to be a Center of Excellence in the teaching of information assurance that certain majors within the student body would fall into this category now, or in the near future, but everyone has something to gain by having sat in on some of the speakers."

"My review of the agenda looks like it's a pretty complete set of topics that are important to the audience," said Michael Jacobs, director of information assurance for the National Security Agency (NSA), who spoke on the topic of global perspectives and policy. "Frankly, I was impressed by how broad it was, so I think it's a good program."

Jacobs is responsible for the program that gave Norwich the recognition of being one of the NSA's Centers of Excellence in Information Assurance Education.

"[The] speakers were chosen because of their national prominence," said Colonel Thomas H. Aldrich, US Army (ret.), program manager of the Norwich Information Assurance Education and Training Program and conference director for the event. "Their comments were focused on what we here in Vermont can do to protect our American way of life, plus give our students an idea of how they fit in as they become the leaders of tomorrow."

"Our institute has done a lot of ground breaking research in the area of cyber attacks, and we feel that we're really starting to serve as a primary national center for information and strategic elements in this area," said Andrew Macpherson, acting manager of law enforcement programs at the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College, who spoke about cyber terrorism. "We were very happy to participate and continue to provide information for folks and really to debunk a lot of the myths about security and cyber attacks."

"The conference consisted of a three-day seminar in which the first two [days] were dedicated to classes and the third was dedicated to ongoing presentations from approximately 15 speakers," said Lisa Dufresne, 21, a senior communications major from Springfield, Vt., and the assistant director for the conference.

The conference was funded by several sources. A $20,000 grant from the NSA "significantly helped defray the costs of putting on this first class conference," according to Aldrich.

"We charged the participants about $500 for the three day event, which had three parallel workshops," said Professor Michel E. Kabay, Ph.D., associate professor of information assurance and the program chair for the conference. "We also invited sponsors to give us money."

The program received a gold sponsorship from Network World that paid $3,000, advertising from Information Security Magazine, and several other vendors paid amounts to do things like give out pens or have a table at the conference, according to Kabay.

"We also had several industrial sponsors such as Network World, Information Security Magazine, Pest Patrol, MGen, and several others," said Aldrich. "We could not have done it without their help and support. Norwich supplied the facilities and the time of
staff and faculty."

Marc Goodman, senior managing director of digital security and investigations for International Police Cooperation (INTERPOL), thought the conference did a "great job" of covering all the bases.

"They're putting out a perspective that you don't often hear, which in addition to civilian perspective is law enforcement and also military, so they're covering quite a bit," said Goodman, who spoke on international cyber crime investigation.

"We discussed the theme of the conference, which is infrastructure security, and we wanted to have representation from the commercial sector, government, military, and academia," said Kabay." And from that point it was our personal knowledge of the speakers" that helped to decide who would be invited to speak.

"I think this was a fabulous conference," said MacPherson. "It contained a lot of valuable information for practitioners and for decision-makers, because awareness and information sharing is one of the most important aspects of computer security."

"Most of the concepts that are conveyed at the conference are of concern to any of us that consider ourselves American citizens who wish to preserve our freedoms and privacy while the World Wide Web continues to grow, and the users become ever more versed in its uses," said Dunkel. "The conference definitely covers issues that many of us don't consider daily, and that many of us will face in our careers or homes later on."

The students who attended the conference were exposed to the importance of networking and how it is vital to know what is going on outside of Norwich.

"It was great for [students] to see Norwich taking on such a strong role in a high-tech, state-of-the-art field," said Dufresne. "I think that it gave more [information] than the students needed; some have told me that it was over their head, and they wondered how they wound up there."

"This conference is a wonderful opportunity for students to ask questions of the 'real-world' information security people," said Dunkel. "Networking only happens if you want it to. They won't come up to you and ask you if you want a job, but if you have questions, concerns, or input, they are willing to listen and engage in conversation."

"I think that this is a great starting point for students," said MacPherson. "Networking is so important in this field, whether it be getting involved on an information technology end where you are mentoring, or for potential job opportunities as students grow and start looking at their career opportunities."

"[The conference] should have provided [students] with ideas that they can take into the world and an understanding of the challenges our government and industrial base faces," said Aldrich.

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