SCD News > SCD story/photo of the week: October 1, 2004

SCD team welcomes experts to Cybersecurity Summit 2004

A team from SCD helped plan and organize Cybersecurity Summit 2004, a workshop aimed at increasing cooperation on cybersecurity among the nation's research and high-performance computing institutions. Larger photo and caption

On September 27–28, NCAR's Scientific Computing Division hosted "Cybersecurity Summit 2004," a two-day workshop in Arlington, Virginia, just outside the nation's capitol. The purpose of the summit was to share information on recent cybersecurity incidents at a number of high-performance computing centers, research facilities, and universities in the geosciences community.

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the summit explored the competing needs of having an open, collaborative research environment versus protecting the security and integrity of the nation's research computing and data assets.

By sharing information in a confidential setting, stakeholders hoped to avoid, mitigate, and better manage possible future incidents, reducing their disruptive impact on the nation's research agenda. The workshop was the first step toward increasing cooperation and communication on cybersecurity among the nation's research and high-performance computing institutions.

SCD helped to plan, organize, and host the summit, which was attended by about 130 center managers, software engineers, and administrators of high-performance systems and networks. Participants hoped to increase cooperation among research institutions on security policies, procedures, and incident response to better protect the integrity of the nation's scientific computing and data assets.

Tom Bettge, associate director of SCD, and Ginger Caldwell, manager of SCD's User Support Section, worked closely with a commitee from NSF and various U.S. research institutions to put together a program of presentations, panels, and breakout sessions. Other SCD staff worked to provide information materials, local arrangements, and technical support.

For details on the conference, see "SCD hosts two-day Cybersecurity Summit near Washington, DC."

— Lynda Lester

Photo: Lynda Lester, NCAR/SCD