Call for Participation
2015 NSF Cybersecurity Summit for Large Facilities and Cyberinfrastructure
August 17 - 19 ✶ Westin Arlington Gateway ✶ Arlington, VA
http://trustedci.org/2015summit/
Theme: Understanding the Information Assets that Enable Science
It is our great pleasure to announce that the 2015 Summit will take place Monday, August 17th through Wednesday, August 19th, at the Westin Arlington Gateway near the National Science Foundation Headquarters in Arlington, VA. On August 17th, the Summit will offer a full day of information security training tailored for the NSF community. The second and third days will follow a workshop format designed to increase the NSF and research community’s understanding of the information assets that enable science: what our information assets are, what risks they face, and how to protect them.
About the Summit
Since 2004, the annual NSF Cybersecurity Summit has served as a valuable part of the process of securing the NSF scientific cyberinfrastructure by providing the community a forum for education, sharing experiences, building relationships, and establishing best practices.
The NSF cyberinfrastructure ecosystem presents an aggregate of complex cybersecurity needs (e.g., scientific data and instruments, unique computational and storage resources, complex collaborations) as compared to other organizations and sectors. This community has a unique opportunity to develop information security practices tailored to these needs, as well as break new ground on efficient, effective ways to protect information assets while supporting science. The Summit will bring together leaders in NSF cyberinfrastructure and cybersecurity to continue the processes initiated in 2013 and 2014: Building a trusting, collaborative community, and seriously addressing that community’s core cybersecurity challenges.
The Summit seeks proposals for presentations, breakout and training sessions. It offers opportunities for student scholarships.
Proposing Content for the Summit
There are many ways to contribute to the Cybersecurity Summit. We are open to proposals for full- or half-day training sessions, for plenary presentations, and for breakout sessions. More specific information on each of those is available below. Submissions should be sent to CFP@trustedci.org by July 20th. Responses should go out by July 31st to ensure adequate planning time for presenters.
Proposing a Plenary Presentation
Please submit brief white papers focused on NSF Large Facilities’ unmet cybersecurity challenges, lessons learned, and/or significant successes for presentation during the Summit Plenary Session (Aug 18-19). White papers (and presentations) may be in the form of position papers and/or narratives and may be one to five pages in length.
All submitted white papers will be included in the 2015 summit report. The Program Committee will select the most relevant, reasoned, and broadly interesting for presentation. A limited amount of funding is available to assist with travel for accepted submissions.
Submission deadline: July 20
Submit to: CFP@trustedci.org
Word limit: 400 to 2000 words (~1-5 single spaced pages)
Notification of acceptance: July 31
Proposing a Training Session
Training may be targeted at technical and/or management audiences, and be half-day or full-day in length. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to: cybersecurity planning and programs, risk assessment and management, regulatory compliance, identity and access management, data management and provenance, networks security and monitoring, secure coding and software assurance, physical security in the context of information security, and information security of scientific and emerging technologies. The Program Committee will select the most community-relevant and broadly interesting training sessions for presentation during the first day of the summit (Aug 17).
We generally prefer trainings with some hands-on or interactive component over those that can be equally well presented in a non-interactive format (e.g. online videos), whether that component is a series of review Q&As, the opportunity to work directly with a piece of software or other tool, or a planning/management activity.
Submission deadline: July 20
Submit to: CFP@trustedci.org
Word Limit: 600 words
Notification of Acceptance: July 31
Proposing Breakout Sessions and Other Activities
In past years, the Summit has experimented with other formats for networking and information exchange, such as table-top topics at lunch and breakout sessions. Proposals for such an activity should be 1-2 pages in length and include the time and space that would need to be allocated, who would run the activity, the activity’s intended audience, and a description of the activity itself and its expected benefits.
Submission deadline: July 20
Submit to: CFP@trustedci.org
Word limit: 400 to 800 words (~1-2 single spaced pages)
Notification of acceptance: July 31
Information for Students
Each year, the summit organizers invite several students to attend the summit. Reimbursement of travel expenses may be available. See this document for more information.
Notes for First-Time Presenters
The Summit organizers want to encourage those who have not presented at previous Summits to share their experiences, expertise, and insights with the NSF cybersecurity community. You don’t need to be perfectly polished, you just need to have something to share about your project or facility's experience with information security. Feedback from last year’s Summit showed that there was a great deal of interest in “lessons learned” type presentations from projects who’ve faced cybersecurity challenges, and had to rethink some things afterwards. We’ve put together a page of tips and ideas for new presenters, including proposal and presentation tips as well as suggested topics. More direct coaching is available upon request.
Please contact CFP@trustedci.org with any questions, or to request help preparing a proposal or getting it ready to present at the Summit.