Keynote Presentation: Neal Ziring

Presented as part of the 2014 HCSS conference.

Abstract

The ability to have secured computing and communications via mobile devices is now considered a mission imperative. From home users to government officials - from personal and business to Top Secret communication and information - everyone wants to work on smart phones, tablets, and other innovative mobile devices. This trend poses some unique threats, in addition to threats posed from traditional computing and communication methods. These unique threats partly arise from mobile device capabilities (e.g., location awareness, capabilities expose us to tracking threats) and partly arise from software deployment and use models (e.g., inter-app service models expose us to inter-app data theft threats). Fortunately the features offered by the new mobile platforms, and their relative freedom from legacy software burden, allow us to explore new means of addressing these threats. This talk explores how the principles of security architecture, software assurance, and trusted computing can be applied in the mobile environment to address emerging threats.

Speaker Bio

Neal Ziring is the Technical Director for the National Security Agency's Information Assurance Directorate (IAD), serving as a technical advisor to the IAD Director, Deputy Director, and other senior leadership. Mr. Ziring is responsible for setting the technical direction across the Information Assurance mission space. Mr. Ziring tracks technical activities, promotes technical health of the staff, and acts as liaison to various industry, intelligence, academic, and government partners. As part of his role, he guides IAD's academic outreach program, acting as a technical liaison to several universities that are participants in the National Centers for Academic Excellence - Research (CAE-R) program. His personal expertise areas include router security, IPv6, VM-based secure systems, cloud computing, cross-domain information exchange, and mobile code security.