Tech joins in effort to protect cyberspace

A new cyberspace technology center has been established in Ruston through the combined efforts of Louisiana Tech and Louisiana State universities. The Center for Secure Cyberspace has been created to assist Tech faculty members in their research and to support the U.S. Air Force if it decides to place its planned cyber center in Louisiana, said Dr. Les Guice, vice president for research and development.

“The Center for Secure Cyberspace capitalizes upon world-class resources of the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, Louisiana Tech’s Institute for Micromanufacturing and LSU’s Center for Computation and Technology,” Guice said.

Guice explained the development of this center – the CSC – is needed because of the new combat domain that has recently emerged – cyberspace.

The location of the CSC – 60 miles east of Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier – is no coincidence, either. Barksdale is under consideration to be used as the Cyber Command Center for the Air Force, Guice said.

“The CSC capitalizes upon many of the tremendous investments that Louisiana has made to support information technology research, including the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, the most powerful and robust optical network and grid computing infrastructure in the country,” Guice said. “At a recent Science and Technology Symposium, we began to explore with Air Force researchers the possibility of using LONI as a real-time test bed.”

Funding for the CSC was around $8 million, with the monies coming from the Louisiana Board of Regents and the two participating universities. Faculty involved with the center include Tech’s Vir Phoha, Kody Varahramyan, Rastko Selmic and Christian Duncan. Peter Chen, S.S. Iyengar, Gabrielle Allen and Tevfik Kosar represent LSU.

Phoha said defense against cyberspace attacks is more necessary now and will become even more crucial as time progresses.

“New types of attacks are coming. It used to be that terrorists were not technologically savvy. Now, even a 16-year-old can create attacks,” Phoha said.

Phoha added Tech is in a great position for technology developments concerning this new cyber realm.

“We have patented technology that almost instantaneously knows when a Web server is under attack,” he said. “The CSC’s core team has the best scientists in cyber security in the world. Peter Chen at LSU is considered a pioneer in software.”
Recently, the Board of Regents and the state have committed more than $200 million to Tech and LSU to support economic technology developments in Louisiana.

The new CSC will also host a national Cyberspace Research Workshop in November in conjunction with the Air Force Cyber Innovation Symposium in Shreveport.

Originally Published August 16, 2007 by:
News @ Tech // jroberts