Tag: cybersecurity

Starting in the Spring, WashU undergraduate students will be able to take an exciting course combining entrepreneurship, cybersecurity, and national defense.

“Laboratory for Defense and Corporate Cybersecurity Innovation” is a joint entrepreneurial lab between WashU, Saint Louis University, CORTEX, and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, where students will solve real-world problems facing the Department of Defense and corporate America in the realm of cybersecurity.

The course is coordinated by Olin’s Academic Director for Entrepreneurship, Cliff Holekamp, and will be co-taught by Adam Timm, EMBA 47 and the Digital Transformation Chief at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

“We are leveraging the world-class resources that we have right here in St. Louis with the NGA, CORTEX, and our strong corporate cybersecurity community,” says Cliff Holekamp, Senior Lecturer and Academic Director for Entrepreneurship. Classes will be held at CORTEX, and student-developed solutions could evolve into startups or be adopted by industry leaders. The course is open to all undergraduates at WashU.

Students will not only develop prototypes to address some of the most pressing cybersecurity challenges facing clients, but will also hone strategies for selling the concept to the Department of Defense and Fortune 500 companies.

“This course is the embodiment of the collaborative spirit that we have been developing in the St. Louis entrepreneurial community,” says Holekamp. “I have also been delighted by the continued spirit of collaboration between Olin and the School of Engineering, with whom we developed this course.”

Enrollment for MGT 460N – Laboratory for Defense and Corporate Cybersecurity Innovation is happening NOW! Sign up via WebSTAC to be part of the lab’s inaugural class in Spring 2018.

The below post was republished with permission from PluggedIN, an automated talent recruitment and matchmaking platform specifically focused on startup companies. PluggedIN was founded by Colleen Liebig, who serves as an Industry Career Specialist & Advisor at Olin, with specialization in entrepreneurship.

Every day, the world becomes more interconnected. From refrigerators and thermostats to televisions and smartphones, the number of devices connected to the Internet has grown exponentially in recent years. While many see this as a central advantage of the digital age, hackers have also taken note of this increased connectivity. At any given moment, experts estimate that there are more than 10 million identified threats on the web, seeking to find and exploit even the smallest vulnerability. Although major industry players are racing to find solutions, the space is ripe for innovative approaches from creative, ambitious start-ups.

One of these young firms is Bandura Systems. Based in St. Louis, the start-up offers a suite of cyber security products that can protect against as many as 100 million threats in real time. As a B2B company, Bandura has successfully served firms in financial service, healthcare, education, and several other industries. Further, the company has formed a series of strategic partnerships with other cyber security firms to provide customers with comprehensive solutions.

Last week, we had the opportunity to learn about Bandura’s work with co-Founder and CEO Suzanne Magee. During our conversation, Suzanne shared a host of insights into how she entered the cyber security field and why it is the perfect space for entrepreneurial ventures. Some highlights from our discussion include:

• How Suzanne founded Bandura by discovering a problem in cyber security solutions, developing a passion for the industry, and then building a business to meet unfulfilled needs
• What is ransom ware and why it has become a growing concern for many businesses and industries
• Striking the right balance in cyber security between competing interests, like convenience versus security and innovation versus regulation
• How we think about hackers, their ideologies, and where they come from
• Why cyber security is ideal for entrepreneurship and how the industry offers deep pockets and significant market opportunity

Wes Huffstutter, MBA’03, is CEO of QuadMetrics, a tech startup that is on the frontline of fighting cybercrime. Using research conducted at the University of Michigan in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security, QuadMetrics is developing a cloud-based service that “determines the probability of a breach at a particular company by collecting from its network more than 250 different data points, such as the misconfiguration of servers and routers or whether spam can be seen exiting the network,” according to a report on the Wall St. Journal website.

“The technology doesn’t require inside access and instead observes all such characteristics from the outside of the company’s network. That profile is then compared against predictive risk models. QuadMetrics looks for cybersecurity characteristics that share similarities with organizations that have historically reported incidents.”

Click here to read the WSJ article.

According to a report compiled by graduate students at the Boeing Center for Technology, Information & Management (BCTIM) at Olin, cyber security poses complicated threats for companies in the metals industry. The report was commissioned by the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI).

The BCTIM report contains research on cyber security threats specifically related to the metals industry and provides recommendations for executives concerned or dealing with cyber security.

Read the news release from the Metals Service Center Institute here.

Cybersecurity, social media, and big data will be the focus of a panel discussion at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29 in Brauer Hall. Featuring professors from the schools of business, engineering, and law, the panel will provide a 360-degree examination of the state of privacy and information security in today’s wi-fi world of communication.

Speakers on the panel include:

• Todd Milbourn, Senior Associate Dean of Faculty & Research, Hubert C. Dorothy R. Moog Professor of Finance, Olin Business School
• Antonio Sardella, Antonio Sardella, Adjunct Professorof Business, Olin Business School
• Patrick Crowley,Assoc. Professor of Computer Science & Engineering, School of Engineering & Applied Science
• Neil M. Richards, Professor of Law, Washington University School of Law

The panel discussion will be held in Room 12 in Brauer Hall on the Danforth Campus from 8-9 a.m., preceded by a networking breakfast at 7:30 a.m.

The event is sponsored by the Sever Institute which launched a new masters degree program in cybersecurity this fall in conjunction with Olin and the School of Engineer & Applied Science.

To reserve a seat at this free event, contact The Sever Institute:
sever.wustl.edu
email sever@wustl.edu,
or call: [314] 935.5484

Photo credit: from Michael Radford’s 1984 film adaptation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.