PROCESSORS

WASHINGTON, DC -- Testimony was provided today at the House Committee on Science's hearing entitled, "Cyber Security- How Can We Protect American Computer Networks From Attack?," by Association for Computing Machinery Fellows Dr. William A Wulf and Dr. Eugene H. Spafford. Dr. Spafford is Co-Chair of the U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM and his testimony may be found at: http://www.acm.org/usacm. Dr. Spafford stressed the importance of our nation developing a long-term, full spectrum view of cyber security. "We cannot hope to manage our security needs without a sustained commitment to the conduct of research -- both basic and applied -- and the development of new experts," he stated. "To achieve the level of proficiency and expertise that our nation requires to dominate the cyber environment on which private and public interest depend, we must focus on five academic areas: support for research, development of infrastructure, access to real-world data, personnel shortages, and legal impediments," said Dr. Spafford. "The one goal that we should all be striving to reach is a process that moves, as expeditiously as possible, proven techniques for successful `information assurance' from laboratories to full integration into computer networks by competent computer professionals in both the private and public sectors. Information assurance covers issues of building safe and reliable information systems that are able to weather untoward events no matter what the cause-- whether natural disaster or of human origin," noted Dr. Spafford. Currently, there is no dependable source of revenue, private or public, for the explicit purpose of improving the collective knowledge base of information security. Funding to in recent years has been sporadic, has failed to support development of academic infrastructure, and is too often focuses on short-term development rather than on innovative research. As a result, there has been little increase in the numbers of trained scientists and faculty in this critical area. Dr. Spafford is a professor of Computer Sciences at Purdue University, and the Director of the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS). Professor Spafford is also on the Board of the Computing Research Association (CRA), and they also endorse his testimony. The ACM is a leading society of computer professionals in education, industry, and government. The USACM facilitates communication between computer professionals and policy-makers on issues of concern to the computing community. For more information, visit the USACM web site at www.acm.org/usacm.