Amoroso, Malek and Tureli feature at IEEE International Conference on Communications 2002
Three Stevens Institute of Technology professors were panelists on the keynote day of the International Conference on Communications, held April 28-May 3 at New York's Marriott Marquis Hotel. Sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the event also served to mark the 50th anniversary of the IEEE Communications Society's founding, with its history celebrated as a "Fifty-Year Foundation for the Future."
More than 1,500 IEEE members and affiliates attended the conference, where nearly as many learned papers were delivered in a variety of symposia, panel presentations and technical sessions.
Stevens' Dr. Manu Malek organized and chaired an April 29 morning Business Application session titled "Security and Information Assurance." Malek, formerly a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Lucent-Bell Labs, and an IEEE Fellow, is Director of the Certificate in Cybersecurity Program in Stevens' Department of Computer Science.
Malek's session took its themes from the concept that security and information assurance are critical issues in Information Technology today, especially in view of their impact on business.
Presenting at the session was Dr. Ed Amoroso, Vice President and Director of AT&T Network Security. Amoroso is responsible for protection of the AT&T network infrastructure, as well as AT&T's managed security and security consultation services. In addition to his work at AT&T, Amoroso has held an adjunct faculty position since 1989 in the Department of Computer Science at Stevens, where he also earned his master's and doctoral degrees in computer science. His talk outlined strategies for reducing the risk of large-scale cyber-attacks against national infrastructures. Amoroso's experience advising on the security of the nation's defense networks illuminated several categories of principles that are applicable to business and the larger civilian world. Amoroso emphasized "diversity and separation of applications within the network - no Microsoft on one segment, no Linux on another, and so on."
He also pointed out that the weakest link in any organization's network is careless human behavior that creates vulnerabilities to attack.
"At AT&T," said Amoroso, "all work groups and departments protect themselves from each other. That kind of networking is where we're all headed - I hope."
Also presenting at the session were renowned researcher Naftaly Minsky of Rutgers University, and Timothy Tsai, a research scientist with Avaya Labs.
A separate Business Application session featured Dr. Uf Tureli, an assistant professor in Stevens' Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Tureli's talk was titled "Educating the Network Engineer," and he sought to define the expertise that should inform the modern telecommunications expert. He expressed particular concern that there be greater standardization in the certification of young engineers.
"Do most education programs as currently configured result in a set of haphazard qualifications?" said Tureli. "Do the licenses and certificates really have meaning in the real world?" Tureli lamented the "low expectations for formal knowledge in fields such as software engineering and network design." Tureli's solution to the problem is an expansion of IEEE Virtual Communities of experts to help establish formal qualifications for graduates in the variety of disciplines comprising the telecommunications-networking field.
"Legal liability for damage done by poor software and systems design should also become a feature of the qualification process," said Tureli.
Chairing the session was Dr. Anant Kumar Jain of Lucent Technologies. Presenting with Tureli were Richard A. Thompson of the University of Pittsburgh, Victor S. Frost of the University of Kansas, and S.Q. Zheng of the University of Texas at Dallas.
About Stevens Institute of Technology
Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.
Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.
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