Cybersecurity Leaders to Probe Growing Threats to Our Political Campaigns and Electoral Process

BROOKLYN, New York – The latest in a long-running series of open lectures on cybersecurity at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering will unveil the growing intensity of cyber threat to the applications and systems supporting our national, state, and local elections.

The lecture, entitled “Democracy Confronts Cyber Insecurity,” will be given by Ed Amoroso, newly appointed distinguished research professor at NYU Tandon and the NYU Center for Cyber Security. The former chief security officer of AT&T Services and an advisor to four presidential administrations, Amoroso is the CEO of TAG Cyber LLC, a global cybersecurity advisory, training, consulting, and media services company supporting hundreds of companies across the world.

During his lecture, Amoroso will probe critical risks to our infrastructure, survey how major political parties grapple with issues of cybersecurity, look back at previous presidential administrations and their security concerns, and offer advice on protecting our electoral systems from hacking.

Panelists Will Offer Mitigation Advice to Companies and Government Agencies

A panel discussion will follow, featuring Austin Berglas, formerly of the FBI and now co-head of managed services and incident response at BlueteamGlobal; Tracie Grella, global head of cyber risk insurance at AIG; Michael Higgins, chief information security officer of NBCUniversal; and Rick Howard, chief security officer of Palo Alto Networks. The experts will tackle the critical issue of how businesses and governments mitigate external digital risks to social, mobile, and web services. NYU Tandon Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Justin Cappos will moderate.

The event will take place at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering in Downtown Brooklyn on Thursday, November 16, 2017, from 3 to 5:30 pm.

“Security issues increasingly arise outside the enterprise perimeter, often manifesting in social media botnets, malware-laden email payloads, and infected mobile apps,” explained Amoroso, who has written six books and dozens of major papers on cybersecurity, holds 10 patents related to the field, and worked with four presidential administrations on national security and policy. “While enterprise teams have developed their skills to protect corporate and enterprise assets, dealing with security issues on the public Internet requires a different way of thinking.”

Sponsored for the first time by AIG, the event is the ninth in a series on cybersecurity and privacy at NYU Tandon. The series has consistently drawn high-level representatives of New York’s regional businesses, government agencies, nonprofits, academic institutions, media, and concerned members of the public.

“Our students and researchers are at the forefront of building more secure cyber technologies, and in the face of increasing cyber risks that have the potential to undermine systems and processes that we hold dear, their work has never been more vital,” NYU Tandon School of Engineering Dean Katepalli R. Sreenivasan said. “We are honored to be affiliated with Ed Amoroso and proud to be hosting him and our esteemed panelists at this important and timely event.”

Admission to the event is free, but space is limited, and registration is required. For more information and to register to attend or to view the live stream, visit the event page. Viewers may submit questions for the panelists during the lecture at cyberlectureseries@nyu.edu or on Twitter @cyberlecture. Follow discussions at #NYUCyberLecture.

The NYU School of Engineering is an internationally recognized center for cybersecurity research, education, and policy. It has received all three Center of Excellence designations from the National Security Agency and the United States Cyber Command.  The School of Engineering joined with other NYU schools to form the Center for Cybersecurity. The consortium researches new approaches to security and privacy by combining security technology, psychology, law, public policy, and business. NYU Tandon’s online master’s program in cybersecurity was named the outstanding online program in the nation by the organization Sloan-C (now the Online Learning Consortium).

About the NYU Center for Cybersecurity
The NYU Center for Cybersecurity (CCS) is an interdisciplinary research institute dedicated to training the current and future generations of cybersecurity professionals and to shaping the public discourse and policy, legal, and technological landscape on issues of cybersecurity. It is a collaboration between NYU School of Law, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, and other NYU schools and departments. Its wide range of activities include student scholarships, interdisciplinary research, teaching, and educational events. For more information, visit cyber.nyu.edu.

About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its main location in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, the country’s largest private research university, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit engineering.nyu.edu.