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University of Connecticut Provost Mun Choi, Connecticut State Representative Matthew Lesser (D-Middletown), Comcast Cable Cybersecurity Governance, Risk and Compliance Vice President Ramesh Sepehrrad, U.S. Representative Joe Courtney (D-CT), and UConn Engineering Dean Kazem Kazerounian at the recent CyberSEED event. (Christopher LaRosa/UConn Photo)

From left: University of Connecticut Provost Mun Choi, Conn. Rep. Matthew Lesser, Comcast Cable Cybersecurity Governance, Risk and Compliance Vice President Ramesh Sepehrrad, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, and UConn Engineering Dean Kazem Kazerounian at the recent CyberSEED event. (Christopher LaRosa/UConn Photo)

The University of Connecticut’s Comcast Center of Excellence for Security Innovation recently hosted CyberSEED 2016. Speakers from around the country shared perspectives on cybersecurity issues and the importance of strengthening online defenses in vital areas.

“This is almost an existential challenge for the country, and frankly it’s going to be a persistent one, for decades to come,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney at the conference.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal meets with the cybersecurity competition team from the U.S. Coast Guard.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal met with the cybersecurity competition team from the U.S. Coast Guard. (Christopher LaRosa/UConn Photo)
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT)

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy joined CyberSEED by teleconference. Video from his statement is available below. (Photo from Sen. Murphy’s website)

Courtney said that the importance of cybersecurity has been emphasized by the news recently.

“As we know from last Friday, when the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security basically came right out bluntly and said ‘this is an attack that came from another nation state, from Russia,’ this issue just keeps escalating- in terms of the threat to whole sectors that have been totally caught off guard.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal echoed Courtney’s commitment to cybersecurity. He discussed the devastating effect that cybercrime can have on citizens, and talked about the need for internet companies to report security breaches in a timely manner.

“A national breach notification standard would help to make sure that consumers are alerted when their sensitive personal information is in the public realm and potentially vulnerable to abuse through identity theft,” Blumenthal said.
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One of the most anticipated talks of the event was from the tech team behind Mr. Robot, the acclaimed television show on the USA Network. The team emphasized the hard work that went into making Mr. Robot accurate from a hacking standpoint.

“What you saw in the seasons, the accuracy that we’ve made, it took a lot of work. A lot of hours at 3 a.m. and text messages at all times of the day,” said Andre McGregor, Director of Security at Tanium. McGregor was previously an FBI Supervisory Special Agent in the Cyber Division, and used that experience to guide the show when it intersected with law enforcement.

One of the recurring topics of the conference was the need to move beyond a coconut model of security, where there is a hard outer shell with a vulnerable system once that shell has been bypassed. This approach not only gives an outside hacker a clear point where they have succeeded, it also leaves a network vulnerable to attacks from within.
The Mr. Robot Panel. From Left are Andre McGregor, Director of Security, Tanium; James Plouffe, Lead Solutions Architect, MobileIron; Ryan Kazanciyan, Chief Security Architect, Tanium; and Dave Kennedy, Founder and Principal Security Consultant, TrustedSec.com.

The Mr. Robot Panel. From Left are Andre McGregor, Director of Security, Tanium; James Plouffe, Lead Solutions Architect, MobileIron; Ryan Kazanciyan, Chief Security Architect, Tanium; and Dave Kennedy, Founder and Principal Security Consultant, TrustedSec.com. (Christopher LaRosa/UConn Photo)

“Every attacker is going to be a potential insider; whether you start on the inside of a network or you’re an external adversary who goes out to breech the perimeter and establish a foothold on the internal network and move from there,” said Sean Malone, chief strategy officer for FusionX.

Malone said that this hardened outer shell approach could lead to a game over mentality when, inevitably, the outer shell is breached.

“It should be as complex or more complex to achieve the objective on the internal network as it is to get there in the first place,” he said.

To view the CyberSEED conferences, visit their Youtube page.

First CyberSEED Event Combines Cybersecurity Competition and Discussion

More than 350 people attended the first-ever CyberSEED Cybersecurity, Education & Diversity Challenge, an event that combined expert speakers and three cybersecurity competitions.

The two-day conference took place Oct. 20 and 21 and was organized by the Center of Excellence for Security Innovation (CSI), a partnership between Comcast and the UConn School of Engineering’s Center for Hardware Assurance, Security, and Engineering (CHASE).

“I think we exceeded the expectations in many ways,” said Mark Tehranipoor, Director, Comcast Center of Excellence (CSI). “Because this was the first CyberSEED event for us, we thought ‘Well, we’ll use it as an experience and learn from this.’ But within a couple months, it became clear that we didn’t have time for ‘learning from this.’ We just have to take it to the next level right away.”

The ambitious event brought more than 40 teams from universities across the U.S. to the UConn campus to compete in three unique cybersecurity challenges for more than $100,000 in prizes. The competition played out over the two days in the same venue – the Lewis B. Rome Commons – that hosted some of most respected experts in the field of cybersecurity.

The conference featured more than 20 speakers, including keynote addresses from Rear Admiral David Simpson (ret.), Chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau; Cheri Caddy, Director for Cybersecurity Policy Integration and Outreach, National Security Staff, The White House; and Donna Dodson, Chief Cyber Security Advisor, NIST.

Speakers and panel discussions addressed a wide range of topics related to cybersecurity – from protecting against international-level cyberattacks, to how businesses can protect their customers. Tehranipoor said he was particularly impressed with the panel discussions that featured all three of the major players in cybersecurity.

“When you bring academia, government and industry into one room and let them talk, I think it’s extremely beneficial,” he said. “The three sides have to hear each other.”

Each is coming at the issue with a slightly different approach, he said, especially in regard to confidentiality. Talking with each other helps resolve those differences.

“At events likes these, they come together and talk about what they want, and I think there’s always ways to come up with common ground,” he said. “I think meeetings like this could have a major impact in the way we address cybersecurity issues.”

The conference also featured a VIP tour of the CSI lab, which opened earlier this year. Tehranipoor and John Chandy, Associate Head of Electrical and Computer Engineering, led guests through the lab and showcased the technology that’s coming out of it.

Sponsors for CyberSEED included Microsoft, Dell, HP, Symantec, CA Technologies, Juniper Networks, Accenture, Veracode, Wipro, PWC and Cyveillance.