The New Star_Tech researchers work on cyber-attack defense (August 16)

16.08.2007

Cyber attacks in April against the northern European country of Estonia brought its economy crashing down because so much of its economy was dependent upon the Internet.

Such incidents have caused the U.S. government to seek new means of protection against cyber threats that could be the future of global warfare.

And Louisiana Tech University could play a big part.

Its new Center for Secure Cyberspace is aimed at developing technologies to be used by the military or the private sector to ensure cyber activities remain secure.

"Cyberspace" refers to the online world of computer networks, primarily the Internet.

In the same way that companies like McAfee Inc. develop special technologies to protect home PCs from viruses, Tech's CSC will devise technologies to protect electronic networks and wireless communications

The CSC has eight computer-science researchers, four from Tech and four from LSU, said CSC director Vir Phoha. "If an important Web site goes down ... who is attacking?" Phoha said. "We don't know where the person is — in Russia, Japan or so on. We would want to trace back and find where the attack is coming from."

Tech vice president of research and development Les Guice said CSC researchers will work with Air Force researchers at Barksdale Air Force Base near Bossier City. "The Air Force realizes that they basically dominate the air. That means they dominate space," Guice said. "But the next wars could be fought in cyberspace."

In recent months, the Air Force has begun the process of establishing a cyberspace command at Barksdale, the result of which would be a multitude of cyberspace-related research activities.

Guice said new technologies produced through the collaborative effort could bring 10,000 to 40,000 new jobs to north Louisiana, an area that tends to lose college graduates to other states.

"These are not routine manufacturing jobs being created," Guice said. "These are higher skill jobs like software and hardware development."

The CSC has been in operation since June following a March proposal submitted to the Board of Regents Post-Katrina Support Fund, a $25 million investment to build "real towers of excellence" at state research universities.

Phoha said CSC researchers have already published individual cyber protection research in the past three years, such as advanced grid computing, how to find malicious online traffic, and how to better detect clogged computer servers before user access is denied to them.

Another large part of this research, he said, will involve sensor networks that could aid U.S. military in the battlefield. These include more advanced computer grids to detect, for example, a terrorist suspect in Iraq before he detonates a car bomb.

This kind of advanced research is possible because of the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative. LONI is the fiber-optics network that connects supercomputers at the state's major research universities. LONI allows computation speeds at 1,000 times the rate previously possible.

"So if we wanted to simulate these complex problems, we could use our super-computers," Guice said. "We could create a test bed for new software."

Former Gov. Mike Foster invested in having LONI originally at five Louisiana universities: Louisiana Tech, LSU, Southern University in Baton Rouge, the University of New Orleans, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

In 2004 Gov. Kathleen Blanco expanded the network to include institutions such as the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.
http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/NEWS01/708160318

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