White House Cybersecurity Director Calls On Business To Help Safeguard Critical Infrastructure By: Homeland Security Today Staff

White House Cybersecurity Director Calls On Business To Help Safeguard Critical Infrastructure

By: Homeland Security Today Staff

03/07/2014 ( 7:17am)

On the heels of the Obama Administration's release of guidelines to protect the nation's essential infrastructure from cyber attacks, White House Director for Cybersecurity Critical Infrastructure Protection Samara N. Moore will headline an open discussion at the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering about the implications for businesses in key industries. The event will be held on Monday morning, March 10, 2014.

"Reducing Cyber Risk: White House Insights on Obama's Critical Infrastructure," will be the first public forum in the greater New York area on the newly issued Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, a series of best practices aimed at boosting the security of all businesses in critical infrastructure-related industries, including energy, transportation, telecommunications, healthcare, water, finance, oil, gas, chemicals, manufacturing and others.

Moore will be joined by Administration and energy and telecommunications experts and the panelists will answer questions about how US businesses can implement the guidelines. Recent high-profile security breaches -- including the Target attack in which a vendor's credentials may have been used to access the retailer's system -- have highlighted the need for vigilance.

The panelists include Bob Kolasky, director of strategy and policy, Office of Infrastructure Protection at the Department of Homeland Security; Jon Boyens, senior advisor-information security, Information Technology Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), US Department of Commerce; Manny Cancel, vice president-information resources, ConEdison; and Chris Boyer, assistant vice president-global public policy, AT&T Services Inc.

The panel will be moderated by NextNine Vice President Michael Coden, a cybersecurity expert who participated in the development of the Cybersecurity Framework and helped to arrange the speaker and panelists.

"Reducing Cyber Risk: White House Insights on Obama's Critical Infrastructure," is the fourth in a series of open lectures on cybersecurity and privacy sponsored by the NYU School of Engineering in alliance with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The lecture is free and open to the public, but attendance is limited and requires registration.

"The newly released Cybersecurity Framework represents a turning point in the cybersecurity discussion because it is rooted in a business approach to managing cyber risks and can be used by industries and businesses of all sizes," Moore said. "It provides a common lexicon that enables CEOs, boards of directors, business managers and operations professionals to communicate and align the organization's efforts to managing cyber risks."

"We are honored to host one of the first public forums explaining this comprehensive national effort to unite businesses against cyber crime," said NYU School of Engineering Dean, Katepalli Sreenivasa. "Today's information security technologies are constantly improving through the efforts of researchers here at NYU School of Engineering and around the world, but cyber criminals are working just as quickly. The importance of adopting the most current security measures and bolstering our cyber defenses cannot be understated.

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