Internet2 Opportunities for the Research & Education Cybersecurity and Privacy Community

By Nick Lewis - Internet2 Program Manager

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Internet2 is a supporter of Cybersecurity Awareness Month and has many cybersecurity opportunities for the community to get engaged with! I talk to campuses regularly, and they’re always interested in what’s going on, but it’s so hard to keep up with everything! As part of Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CSAM) this year with the theme “See Yourself In Cyber,” we’re highlighting for the community the Internet2 cybersecurity related activities and resources available to research and education to use for protecting your campus and furthering your professional development. 

Hopefully this will make it easier for campuses to get involved and develop. Internet2 works with our partners at EDUCAUSE and the REN-ISAC on cybersecurity in higher education as well as running programs that can be used by higher education institutions in securing their campuses. Internet2 has cybersecurity woven all throughout the organization and the work we do with the community. Internet2 cybersecurity resources and activities include the new Minority Serving Cyberinfrastructure Consortium, network, trust and identity, cloud services, community events, and many other activities. 

Minority Serving – Cyberinfrastructure Consortium

An exciting and new cybersecurity development in 2022 was the Minority Serving – Cyberinfrastructure Consortium (MC-CC) organizing and hosting a series of free cyberinfrastructure and cybersecurity workshops for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and tribal colleges and universities (TCUs). This was made possible thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a Center of Excellence Demonstration Pilot grant (award # 2137123).

The MS-CC envisions a transformational partnership to promote advanced cyberinfrastructure capabilities on the campuses of HBCUs, TCUs, Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and other Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). They focus on building a trusted community among institutions to advance community and capacity building, workforce development, and research support and acceleration.These activities are critical for everyone to make a difference building capacity on their campuses and in the community. 

Network Related Cybersecurity 

Designed for the demanding requirements of data-intensive research and supporting the advanced campus and cloud computing needs of the research and education community, the Internet2 Network provides the performance, resiliency, security and capabilities demanded by the most advanced applications and networks. As part of this, Internet2 has several network security activities for the community to get engaged with, including a Network Security Special Interest Group focused on network security, a Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) working group focused on routing security, a DDoS Mitigation Service for campuses to adopt to protect their network along with our internal network security efforts to protect the Internet2 backbone network. Routing integrity has been a key focus because of the indispensable nature of the network, and a new routing integrity service to improve routing security for Internet2 members was recently announced. 

InCommon 

Internet2 operates InCommon, the community-built and community-driven access management infrastructure and related Trusted Access Platform that supports academic mission and collaborative research across the U.S. and globally. To learn more about how your peers are using these tools, come to InCommon events, watch the recordings from BaseCAMP, participate in the InCommon Academy for IAM training, or get involved in the Community Success Program. You’ll learn about and participate in developments and discussions on international identity and access management. 

Cloud Services

Internet2 supports our members cloud journeys with a focus on enabling cloud access, supporting security and management needs, and fostering communities of practices.  The NET+ program provides a portfolio of community-evaluated cloud services to higher education institutions as a key part of many campus cloud and cybersecurity programs. In 2022, we launched a new services evaluation for Kion that may be of interest to campus cybersecurity teams for managing security and compliance for IaaS services. We also have made significant developments on the Cloud Scorecard for campuses to use for screening cloud services including pointers HECVATs. The NET+ program has two services campuses can use to directly support enabling multi-factor authentication with the NET+ Duo program and a password manager with the NET+ LastPass program. 

Community Events

While so much community work continues to be done by video conference, email lists, and wikis, our virtual community events have kept the entire community together while we have gotten restarted on in-person events like the Technology Exchange. These virtual and reemerging in-person events are invaluable as a place for updates from the community on the hottest cybersecurity topics. Internet2 events provide critical opportunities for our expanding and diverse community to work together and share. Participants at our various events represent the complete spectrum of the global Internet2 community—including university, industry, and affiliate members, as well as government agencies and regional and international partners. 

Cybersecurity is at the very core of the Internet2 community’s ability to collaborate, define, test, and deploy advanced technologies that advance research and scholarship. Internet2 has working groups and many other ways for campuses to get involved in advancing cybersecurity across the community. These activities support campuses taking a risk-based approach to protect their campuses, learn from their peers, and to focus on the behaviors most important to your organization. We’d love to hear your thoughts around cybersecurity and Internet2! Reflect on ways your own institution is enhancing security by tweeting @Internet2, #SeeYourselfInCyber, and #BeCyberSmart or directly contacting and sharing how you participated in CSAM. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or suggestions!

ICYMI

NET+ Security and Identity Portfolio Update for Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022

See Yourself in Cyber – Internet2 Staff Celebrate Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022: Seeing Yourself in Cyber with the MS-CC