Cal will lead effort against cyberattacks Berkeley to lead U.S.

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Apr 12, 2005 | by ,

University of California, Berkeley will lead a consortium of colleges in a $19 million effort to protect the nation's computers from cyberattacks, the National Science Foundation announced Monday.

UC Berkeley researchers will join those at seven other colleges and universities -- including Mills College in Oakland -- to form the Team for Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technology, or TRUST.

The researchers will focus on developing new technologies to design, build and operate information systems that control critical infrastructure. The effort will include ways to protect computers from attack, as well as new methods to keep systems running even after intrusions occur.

The TRUST center will receive $19 million over the next five years, with the possibility of a five-year, $20 million extension at the end of the initial term.

The center is one of two National Science Foundation Science and Technology Centers that will receive funding this year, and its formation comes amid concerns over the security of thenation's information and technology systems. A report released last month by the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee recommended increased support for research into cybersecurity, saying the nation's information infrastructure is vulnerable to "disruptive domestic and international attacks."

Other TRUST academic partners are Mills, Stanford University, San Jose State University, Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, Cornell University in New York state, Smith College in Massachusetts and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

The announcement also follows two recent information leaks at UC Berkeley. Last month, a laptop computer containing names, Social Security numbers and other personal information of nearly 100,000 graduate students and alumni was stolen from an office. And in October, a computer and server hooked to the campus network without proper security precautions were linked to a hacker attack that may have exposed personal information of about

600,000 participants in a state in-home health care program.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau has called for an outside auditor to review campus security policies.