Michael Reiter, a computer security expert in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences, was one of a select group of academics chosen to provide input into the new initiative on cybersecurity announced by President Barack Obama on May 29.
Reiter, the Lawrence M. Slifkin Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, took part in a teleconference earlier this year led by Melissa Hathaway of the National Security Council, who was tapped by President Obama to review the nation’s cyberspace policy.
Reiter then organized the response from academic experts to questions posed by Hathaway during the teleconference. Questions covered a broad range of topics, from ensuring privacy to the status of research on self-repairing networks.
"Cybersecurity is a pressing matter that requires near-term stopgap measures, longer-term thinking about how to shift the balance in the "arms race" between attackers and defenders, and a focus on education to produce a security-minded computing workforce," Reiter said. "We are very grateful to Ms. Hathaway for involving the academic computer security research community in her 60-day cybersecurity review."
