Earlier this week, Purdue’s Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) held its annual Information Security Symposium. This year’s symposium was well-attended, and the keynote speakers perhaps had something to do with that.  The keynote speaker for the first day was the Honorable Mike McConnell, a former Director of National Intelligence, among several other posts.  The day two keynote speaker was the current Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate in the Department of Homeland Security, the Honorable Rand Beers. Of course, the internationally-renowned director of CERIAS, Gene Spafford, was there, along with a collection of academic and industry representatives serving on three speaking panels.

With the exception of the poster session, the content of the symposium was largely non-technical.  This is fitting, since many of the greatest challenges in cyber security revolve around social or political difficulties, not technical limitations.  Both Admiral McConnell and Mr. Beers discussed at great length the interactions between the public and private sectors and the need for a mature cyber security policy. Continue reading →