DesignSafe-CI Engagement

Summer - Fall 2017

DesignSafe-CI (DesignSafe) is a component of The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) funded by multiple grants from the NSF (most recently #1520817) under a Cooperative Agreement through the Division Of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI). DesignSafe embraces a 'cloud' strategy for the 'big data' generated in natural hazards engineering research. It supports research workflows, data analysis, and visualization.

Trusted CI’s and DesignSafe’s primary objective for this engagement was to gauge the thoroughness and coverage of the DesignSafe security program. This was accomplished by Trusted CI reviewing the security documents for DesignSafe and its associated Experimental Facilities (EFs), and comparing those to best practices, specifically chosen from Trusted CI's “Guide to Developing Cybersecurity Programs for NSF Science and Engineering Projects”.

A secondary objective of this engagement was to produce a list of "opportunities for improvement.” Using the observed strengths and weaknesses of the provided EF cybersecurity plans, CTSC and DesignSafe strategized on which documents needed attention.