National Security Agency and NSF Sponsor Workshop at UB on Secure Knowledge Management in Cyberspace

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Secure knowledge management, the growing dilemma of how to gather, organize and share information among employees in organizations while ensuring security, will be the subject of a workshop to be held Sept. 23 and 24 in the Buffalo/Niagara Marriott, 1340 Millersport Highway, Amherst.

It is being sponsored by the National Security Agency; the University at Buffalo's Center of Excellence in Information Systems Assurance Research and Education (CEISARE), which is a designated National Security Agency center; the National Science Foundation; the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, and UB's Office of the Vice President for Research.

The workshop is being organized by Shambhu Upadhyaya, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science and engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and director of CEISARE, and H. Raghav Rao, Ph.D., professor of management science and systems in the UB School of Management.

"This workshop will help raise the awareness of academics and practitioners in this critical area of research and will develop important questions that need to be tackled by the research community," said Upadhyaya.

Rao noted that "since the terrorist attacks in 2001, many organizations, especially the U.S. government, have increased their concern with security features that prevent unauthorized access to proprietary, classified or sensitive knowledge."

Bhavani Thuraisingham, program director, Cyber Trust and Data and Applications Security at the NSF, will deliver a keynote speech at 8:45 a.m. on Sept. 23. Hun Kim, director of the Department of Homeland Security's National CyberSecurity Division, will speak about "National Cyber Security: Progress and the Road Ahead," at 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 23.

Margaret (Peg) Grayson, president and chief executive officer of V-One Corp. and a member of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, will deliver the banquet speech at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 23. Her topic will be "The Challenges of Secure Knowledge Management."

Academic, corporate and government speakers will address a variety of topics, including access control and rights; trust and privacy; security in health informatics and cyberidentity.

A highlight will be a panel on "Women in Cyber Security" coordinated by Sharmistha Bagchi-Sen, Ph.D., UB professor of geography. Panelists will include Susan Patrick, director of education in the Office of the Secretary of Education, and Nuala O'Conner Kelly, chief privacy officer, Department of Homeland Security.

Workshop information may be found at http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/caeiae/skm2004.html.