Department of Homeland Security S&T Conference roundup
The DHS Science and Technology Directorate Conference was held at the end of May, and since then a few interesting balls have been set in motion in the field of IT security. In many ways the conference was a metaphor for the global concerns on security. Speakers and participants from all over the world attended and discussed ideas from the strictly conceptual to the already-in-use, to coin a phrase.
According to a post on Mountain Runner, much of the discussion fell under one of two categories: “Come check out the new and improved Science and Technology Directorate” and “Let me tell you about a problem so you can make money with a solution.” The post discusses a variety of innovative panels including some covering information collection and even one on blogging. It also links out to a collection of video from the conference which is temporarily on display here.
At the conference, DHS also announced nine new technical topic areas they are interested in funding research for:
- TTA 1 – Detecting and Mitigating Botnets (more interesting given what happened to Estonia. What about a botnet aimed at the bulk electric asset owners?)
- TTA 2 – Composable and Scalable Secure Systems (how do a set of secure of secure devices create a secure and highly available system?)
- TTA 3 – Cyber Security Metrics (what is the risk? a big problem in the control system community, but the TTA is much broader)
- TTA 4 – Network Data Visualization
- TTA 5 – Internet Topography
- TTA 6 – Routing Security Management Tool (Secure alternatives to BGP for Internet routing)
- TTA 7 – Process Control Security (Obviously TTA 7 is aimed at control system. There are two sub-topics: Secure and Reliable Wireless and Real-Time Security Event Assessment and Mitigation.)
- TTA 8 – Data Anonymization (Big issue in information sharing in control systems)
- TTA 9 – Insider Threat Detection and Mitigation (A sophisticated attack designed to misuse or mislead a control system would require specialized knowledge so insiders are one of the serious threat agents.)
(from Digital Bond)
In a particularly interesting move, DHS invited a number of science fiction writers to present some of their ideas for DHS technology development. Now, before your eyes roll right out of their head, you’d have to admit first that science fiction writers have regularly made accurate predictions based on emerging (or even speculative) technology.
Secondly, it’s important to note that all of the authors who got invitations also had “advanced technical or medical degrees” (according to The Register). The article suggests that the authors didn’t necessarily deliver any earth-shaking ideas, but it certainly shows some outside-the-box thinking on the DHS’s part. As advanced information technology becomes more and more widespread, that may be exactly the kind of forward thinking the security world needs.
