Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Senators introduce bill to create more cyber grand challenges

Monday, May 18, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Bipartisianship Cyber Security

Comments: 0

A trio of senators introduced legislation May 13 that would create several cyber grand challenges aimed at improving the overall cybersecurity of the United States.

The bill, called the "‘Cybersecurity Competitions to Yield Better Efforts to Research the Latest Exceptionally Advanced Problems Act of 2020, or CYBER LEAP Act, would direct the Secretary of Commerce to establish at least five public competitions that would allow participants to submit solutions for some of the most pressing cybersecurity challenges.

Grand challenges offer the public cash or non-cash prizes to solve some of the federal government’s most pressing issues. The bill was introduced by Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Cory Gardner, R-Colo.

One challenge under the bill would tackle the “economics” of cyberattacks. Under that challenge, respondents would submit innovative ways to raise the cost of an adversary’s cyberattack. A major problem for cyber defenders is that the cost of carrying out a cyberattack is very low.

Another challenge seeks solutions to reduce cyberattacks on federal networks and improve agencies’ responses to incidents. A third challenge set would ask for ways to improve the digital literacy of Americans, as well as the need to develop a cyber workforce with “measurable skills.”

“These prize-based contests are designed to increase collaboration between the public and private sectors and academia in order to develop cutting-edge ideas in cybersecurity,” Wicker said in a statement. "This legislation would be instrumental in encouraging American ingenuity, and I am eager to see it advance.”

The final two challenges call for “reimagining digital identity” to increase online security for Americans and an effort to advance cybersecurity efforts in the face of threats posed by quantum computing, 5G and artificial intelligence.

“We put our nation at risk if we don’t invest in our cybersecurity workforce and infrastructure,” Rosen said in a statement. “As our world becomes more digitized, I’m proud to help introduce this bill to assist our nation in developing a cybersecurity workforce with the skills needed to protect and maintain information systems and improve critical federal agencies’ security and safety."

The idea for cybersecurity grand challenges came from the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee’s report on a “Cybersecurity Moonshot” that came out in November 2018, which outlined potential actions to improve the nation’s cybersecurity.

In other agencies, such challenges have eventually led to new contracts. On May 11, the Defense Innovation Unit awarded a $45 million to a Silicon Valley-based tech startup, ForAllSecure, to perform cybersecurity testing on Defense Department weapon systems’ applications. In 2016, the company’s Mayhem platform won DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge, an automated defensive cybersecurity competition. That victory came with a $2 million prize.

Photo: A new bill would establish several cybersecurity grand challenges. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Link: https://www.fifthdomain.com/workforce/education-training/2020/05/14/senators-introduce-bill-creating-cyber-grand-challenges/

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