Jon Silman - Plugged in: Cybersecurity in the Modern Age

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PLUGGED IN

CYBERSECURITY IN THE MODERN AGE

Jon Silman

CONTENTS

WHAT IS CYBERSECURITY?

Imagine all of your informationmedical, financial, and personalavailable for anyone in the world to see. That medical procedure? The password to your bank account? All of it, readily available for anyone with a little bit of Internet know-how. Does that sound scary? Unlikely?

Unfortunately, its not only real; its more common than you might think.

Files used to be stored in warehouses, in physical folders and lockers, behind doors and guards. Physical keys were needed to access rooms. Physical presence was required to be inside a house. Now, you can check in with a camera connected to a network. You can download addresses, social security numbers, and credit cards with a few clicks.

More and more personal information is now being stored on the cloud. Type in a name, at a doctors office, for example, and information comes right up. Need information on a particular person? Type in a drivers license number. Want to check your bank account balance? Insert username and password. So yes, you have information at your fingertips, but at what cost?

The ease of access belies the real trouble, the one most people would rather not think about, and thats security. Ease of access is a sacrifice for security. Convenience is too.

Security protocols, though annoying, at least secure information. The truth is there are many ways to get at personal informationnot just through something as simple as a stolen password but also through backdoors and hacks of the software and even the hardware itself.

When was the last time you updated all of your apps on your smartphone? Or your operating system? Have you ever thought about the reason why updates are necessary? Its not just because things need to be up to date. Mostly its because adversaries (i.e., bad guys) have found ways to infiltrate the software. Thats why its so important.

Cybersecurity is not a buzzword. Its not something to be ignored. It will only become more and more important as more and more of our lives become interconnected and networked. Almost everything we do, every single day, will have some sort of online component. Its important to know the impact of cybersecurity and the importance of staying on top of not only knowledge but the latest practices as well.

So why is information so hard to secure? Why is cybersecurity such an important topic?

According to the Department of Homeland Security, there is increased risk for wide scale or high-consequence events that could cause harm or disrupt services upon which our economy and the daily lives of millions of Americans depend. In light of the risk and potential consequences of cyber events, strengthening the security and resilience of cyberspace has become an important homeland security mission.

This is where the University of Florida comes in. With its preeminence initiative, with the goal of becoming a top-ten university, UF has made the field of cybersecurity research one of its main priorities. The university has hired some of the best cybersecurity minds in the world to attack the problem from all sides and avenues. It has created the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research, with leaders from all facets and fields, from electrical engineering to computer science, to study and experimentto explore the best ways to stay safe online.

Theyre tackling the hard questions and working to stay ahead of the trends. Theyre figuring out how to keep smartphones safe, how to track data, how to find hardware Trojans on chipsthe list goes on.

In a recent interview, UF College of Engineering Dean Cammy Abernathy spoke about the importance of the research, and what it means. Cybersecurity is one of the most important issues facing our country, she said. Its our responsibility to work on issues of importance, and weve made it one of our top priorities.

Abernathy said the topic comes up more and more in her daily conversations, especially as more computer systems become embedded in our everyday lives. Its an issue from banking to health care to the automotive industry, and its only going to become more prevalent, especially as more and more devices become connected through the Internet.

Confidence in these systems is critical to sustain our way of life, she said. If we lose confidence in these things, its going to have a tremendous negative impact.

In addition, she said, its also a national security issue, as there are people out there who want to exploit our systems and degrade not only our way of life but our society as a whole.

As for the birth of the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research, she said there were previously members of the college working on this subject, but not to the level that there is today.

We found some of the best minds of cybersecurity in the country, she said, adding that they picked from the brightest young minds they could get and also some of the leading veterans of the field who bring valuable institutional knowledge to the table.

We brought them all together, colocated them in one space, formed the institute, and already were off to a great start, she said. We want to build on that.

She relishes the fact that there are such varied brands of research going on at the institute. For example, she said the work being done on hardware assurance has gotten national attention.

She sees the institute and the cybersecurity initiative as a way to breed a new type of engineer, ones that can lead in the twenty-first century, not only with technical know-how, but with the communication and social skills necessary to teach and inform a whole new generation of learners.

Abernathy said this is only the beginning, as she plans on hiring more people, especially someone who specializes in biomedical research. She knows that cybersecurity is a growing field, and she wants to be able to meet the need with the best around.

Lets give them the ability to not only solve the problems of today, she said, but also prepare them to tackle the problems fifteen to twenty years from now.

Cybersecurity is a massive topic, and it touches upon all aspects of technology. This breadth is why the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research was established. Its meant to be the foremost and premier multidisciplinary research institute in the country. Its focused on advancing the field of cybersecurity to stay ahead of the hackers and cybercriminals and foreign agencies who try to compromise and steal not only our data but our cutting-edge technology. Its a partnership between all types of industry and government. Its also a chance for undergraduate and graduate students to learn from elite cybersecurity experts.

So what challenges does it bring? Who is the team at the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research? What are they doing so the bad guys dont win?

THE INSTITUTE AND THE PREEMINENCE INITIATIVE

The initiative really got started in November 2013. Thats when the Florida Board of Governors gave the signal to the University of Florida to go on what would become one of the most prolific and consequential hiring sprees in the state. They gave the approval to go after the stars in their respective fields, with one goal in mind: make the University of Florida a top-ranked public research university.

And they ponied up, with a plan to spend $15 million in funding from the legislature for different areas of focus, such as biodiversity and food security and informatics and creative writingand, of course, cybersecurity. The idea is to snag the top minds in the country and bring them all to the same placeGainesville, Florida.