On the Lookout
Even as Questions about cyber security and America's vulnerability to attack have been peppering the news, specialists at Dartmouth have been leading efforts to counter terrorist threats to the nations information infrastructure. Led by a new executive director, computer science professor David Kotz '86, the Institute for Security Technology Studies (ISTS) is refocusing its energies around a revised strategic plan and rethinking research and funding to best meet this demand.
The 4-year-old institute, which receives an average of $14 million in annual funding from government and corporate sources, researches homeland security issues-including cyber security and bioterrorism-and develops solutions to potential threats.
One focus is emergency response preparedness. Recent projects include the use of mobile computing and wireless networks to support first-responders, the development of technology to aid in emergency training, research on new biological compounds that might protect humans exposed to Anthrax and Sarin, and enzymes that detoxify chemical nerve agents.
The ISTS Cyber Security Exercise Development Center, located at 45 Lyme Road, conducts tests intended to improve information infrastructure defense. One exercise, designed for the Homeland Security Council and commissioned by the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, simulated a monthlong attack on the country's energy and banking sectors. Engaging 300 people from 50 government and industry organizations in 14 locations across the nation, it was executed "as it might have been conducted by a determined and wellfunded adversary" says Kotz. "It was particularly valuable because it involved actual people in many companies and relevant federal agencies who would have to deal directly with detecting and responding to such an attack."
ISTS also administers the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P), a consortium of 24 universities and nonprofits aiming to develop a national agenda for cyber security and promote collaboration between academia, government and industry.
Given ISTS' new strategic plan, greater amounts of its research will center on securing computing and communications networks and new technology to aid large-scale disaster situations. One simulation uses wireless data networks and environmental and physiological sensors to provide first-responders and their commanders with better situational awareness in a disaster. ISTS projects have already spurred change within the government and corporate sectors, and promise to continue informing the everchanging terrain of national defense.
