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Securing info
With research interests in operating systems, it's natural for Johnny
Wong to be involved in the growing field of computer security
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Back a few years ago, Johnny Wong, professor of computer science, served
as the principal investigator of a $200,000 grant funded by the office
of INFOSEC Research and Technology of the National Security Agency (NSA).
The research project, "Intelligent Multi-Agent for Intrusion Detection
and Countermeasures," looked to develop the technical foundation
for the work based on known vulnerabilities or known user activities and
components of systems that may be monitored.
"The proposed research sought to design, implement and evaluate adaptive
and mobile intelligence multi-agents for intrusion detection and countermeasures
in a distributed heterogeneous computing environment," said Wong,
who worked on the grant with fellow Department of Computer Science professors
Les Miller and Vasant Honavar.
These days, Wong is continuing his work on computer security as a faculty
member in Iowa State's Information Systems Security Laboratory (ISSL),
a joint effort of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, the
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, the Department
of Management Information Systems, the Department of Mathematics, the
Department of Political Science as well as the Department of Computer
Science. The six departments jointly offer graduate and undergraduate
level courses with a primary emphasis on information security education.
Currently Wong is the project coordinator for a $2.6 million National
Science Foundation-funded project on SFS Fellowships to train information
assurance students.
Iowa State's ISSL is one of the first seven Centers of Academic Excellence
in Information Assurance Education designed by the NSA. Information assurance
is the term generally used to describe issues related to the technology
and policy of securing information on computer networks.
"Most computers are connected to LANs and then on to the Internet,"
Wong said. "Because of that, most of us think we can protect our
network systems. But there is no such thing as perfect protection. We're
trying to teach and further learn how to protect computer systems from
attack.
"My research centers around the most up-to-date technology available
to protect intrusion into these computer systems and provide countermeasures."
Wong says the nation's reliance upon computers, and ultimately the Internet,
for information makes us more vulnerable.
"Our lives depend on this infrastructure," he said. "One
of the reasons why the government is paying so much attention to this
area is that it is a natural target for our enemies. The Internet and
the
World Wide Web are becoming even more important in terms of research and
education. It's going to become more challenging in the future to protect
that system."
The development of graduate level courses in information assurance is
one way to combat that future challenge.
"This is one of the biggest growing areas in computer science,"
Wong said. "The demand for graduates is growing so much that any
future graduate with a computer science or computer engineering degree
should have some background in computer security."
Around LAS
January 28 to February 3, 2002
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