Cyberterrorism and Cybersecurity: Partnering to Stay Future-Ready and Secure High-Profile Research Data

Central IT organizations must place an emphasis on agility and alignment to evolving campus needs. Partnering closely with faculty ensures that a central IT organization anticipates and understands changing needs, and begins to offer solutions proactively. Strong faculty partnerships through regular interactions create a shared understanding around teaching and learning needs, service activities, and research requirements. New policies and the increasing need for compliant, helpful solutions has made secure research IT a continued area of expansion and rapid growth. The future of higher education cybersecurity requires us to continually understand how the borders are changing and align our defense strategy accordingly, all while supporting users who are relying on technology more and more due to the pandemic’s increased remote and virtual work. This presentation will discuss how a central IT organization has partnered closely with a large, high-profile Department of Homeland Security (DHS) research grant faculty team to understand the research IT needs, ensure compliance, evolve the technology, and ultimately secure the high-profile researchers. In addition, this presentation will feature faculty researchers, including the faculty director/principal investigator leading the DHS grant, who will share research observations around cyberterrorism, including findings about ideologically motivated cyberattacks.