http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070826_1_A23_hAnew30513 By April Marciszewski World Staff Writer 8/26/2007 A new Institute for Information Security, or iSec, is available to the private sector. University of Tulsa officials think they have one of the best information security programs in the world, but few people know it. For the past dozen years, professors and students working for TU's Center for Information Security have mostly done top-secret work for the federal government, so they could not tell anyone about their accomplishments and expertise. Now, TU has turned the center into the Institute for Information Security, or iSec, and is putting an emphasis on working for the private sector. "Now we can tell the world who we are and where we're going and, at the same time, tell the world Tulsa's a great place to start a business," TU Trustee Jim McGill said. TU officials want private companies to know they can take advantage of the researchers' expertise. McGill already has seen TU graduates form information security companies, and he thinks the institute can further boost economic development in Tulsa, in the same way university research boosted Boston and Austin, Texas, and created the Silicon Valley. "Why can't the Arkansas Valley be the information security valley?" he proposed. In the 1920s and '30s, TU's petroleum engineering program was the best in the world, McGill said, and it populated Tulsa with people with doctorates and high incomes. "Let's go do it again with information security," he said. McGill said he hopes iSec will work with the proposed city of Tulsa Innovation Institute, a business incubator. TU could build a classified research facility at the Innovation Institute so start-up companies could grow quickly. TU's institute is expected to improve Tulsa's economy in another way. Many of the students who worked in the Center for Information Security have moved to Washington, D.C., for government jobs, but the institute's work with private companies will keep more graduates in Tulsa, said computer science doctoral student Nakeisha Schimke. For the information security center to become an institute "is a huge move," she said. Schimke earned her bachelor's and master's degrees at TU, went to work for Williams Power Co. and decided to return to TU this fall for her doctorate in computer science because she considers its security program one of the best in the country. One of iSec's plans is to find out where graduates who worked in the center are working now and how much they are making so TU can assess how successful its program is, said Gavin Manes, a research assistant professor with the institute and founder of Oklahoma Digital Forensics Professionals. Most graduates go to work for the National Security Agency, and many move on to higher-paying jobs in the private sector. Unlike the center, the institute will be able to have faculty of its own, Manes said. Computer science faculty made up the center, but the institute will expand to include electrical and mechanical engineering faculty. An executive director will be hired shortly, and McGill expects iSec to eventually have its own building on the TU campus. McGill and computer science professor Mauricio Papa said the need for information security will continue to increase. McGill said computers will be the size of cell phones in five years, will be portable and will connect to computer screens and keyboards. That means a company's knowledge and secrets will walk out the door every time an employee carries the computer to lunch or home for the evening. Tulsa already has one company, Digital Enterprise Security Associates, founded by TU graduate Jerald Dawkins, that certifies computer applications as secure. Papa conducts research in computer security for the oil and gas industry. For three years, he has been working to improve security in devices that control variables such as flow, temperature and pressure at refineries, oil rigs and pipelines. Security tools have to be specially designed for such environments. Papa hopes his research eventually can be applied to electric companies and water treatment plants, which also use process-control systems. As computer systems become more complex, vulnerabilities can become easier for attackers to find, Papa said. "I don't think this is an issue that will disappear in the next few years," he said. ____________________________________ Attend HITBSecConf2007 - Malaysia Taking place September 3-6 2007 featuring seven tracks of technical training and a dual-track security conference with keynote speakers Lance Spitzner and Mikko Hypponen! - Book your seats today! http://conference.hitb.org/hitbsecconf2007kl/
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