This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Professor Arun Sood of George Mason University will lead this project to promote CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) capacity building in Africa, since vulnerabilities in Africa have the potential to affect the security of the US computing community.
Intellectual Merit: The developed and emerging nations of the world have ICT networks and information systems that are connected, comprising the global information infrastructure. Because of this connectivity, and the reality of modern ICT vulnerabilities in a world rife with malicious actors in a continuum from hackers to nation states that regularly launch successful cyber attacks. The developed world is threatened by vulnerable, high-risk systems in the developing world, which can serve as unwitting launching pads for cyber attacks. Accordingly, it is in the manifest interest of the developed nations to partner with emerging nations to promote national cyber security capacity, in general, and CERTs, in particular, and a collaboration framework among developing nations and with regional and global organizations to manage and reduce risk and enhance coordinated preparedness to respond to cyber attacks and recover from disruptions. The heart of this proposed initiative is to partner with key internal and external stakeholders to drive a strategic and coordinated approach to these challenges and opportunities that will build on past efforts and leverage progress that has been made and some that are ongoing. Key stakeholders within African countries and the continent must participate in the formulation and execution of the strategy, generally, and the development and implementation of the business case for each national CERT, in particular. This initiative requires modern expertise and an inherently interdisciplinary approach at each stage or phase of the initiative. Some may view this as a "high risk-high payoff" because it involves approaches that are radically different than those that are traditionally undertaken. Those legacy approaches have not, and will not work, in this context. The methodology of this research will be to collaborate with key stakeholders within selected African nations, across the continent of Africa, and with regional and global CERTs and centers of excellence to promote CERT capacity in Africa, by taking the following steps: (1) conduct an inventory of the human, technological, and other resources available in government, academia, and the private sector, to promote and support CERT development and success; (2) identify African nations that are well positioned to develop or enhance capabilities to build a national CERTs; and (3) to model several approaches for CERT development in Africa. The outcome of this research will be a plan for prioritized, cost-effective CERT development for Africa and a framework for collaboration and information sharing among the emerging CERTs and with global organizations and centers of excellence to be presented to the African Union.
Broader Impacts: Generally, this effort will contribute to greater international information sharing and collaboration regarding ICT risk and response and recovery preparedness. More specifically, the greatest benefit of this effort will be two-fold: (1) the positive impact on development of information technology infrastructure in Africa and its effect on socio-economic progress, and (2) of particular benefit to the United States and other developed nations, this effort will result in significant African contribution to enhancing global and regional ICT risk assessment and mitigation, and international situational awareness and response. Students will find the interdisciplinary and Africa centric focus attractive. We believe that this effort will attract minority students to consider Computer Science for higher studies. The US based graduate students involved in this project will have the opportunity to work in an international and interdisciplinary setting. The faculty involved in this activity, will be able share this experience with the students. The PI has often used international and interdisciplinary experience to motivate and illustrate class topics and he expects to include this experience to provide real life examples in his classes. Getting prepared for a CERT building initiative requires education and training in the African country. It is inevitable that some of the participants will decide to undertake graduate studies in the US and add a new dimension to the student body.
