University of Tulsa hosting conference on cybercrime prevention

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ A University of Tulsa conference this week focuses on preventing cyberterrorism and computer-generated sabotage, university officials said. <br><br>About 70 computer science and math

Sunday, July 21st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ A University of Tulsa conference this week focuses on preventing cyberterrorism and computer-generated sabotage, university officials said.

About 70 computer science and math students from around the nation will meet at Cyber Corps Symposium 2002 that begins Saturday. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency will also be represented at the meeting.

The students are part of a Clinton-era mandate to develop professionals who can help thwart a ``Sept. 11-like attack'' on the Internet and U.S. defense systems, said TU computer science professor Sujeet Shenoi.

``It is an incredible experience for a professor to have the students come together to form a community and to go forward to form a safer society,'' said Shenoi, who has helped the university secure more than $10 million in federal funds for cybersecurity and cyberterrorism education. Tulsa has 23 doctoral students in such programs.

Other schools involved in producing cyber corps graduates are Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Purdue University, Naval Postgraduate School in Monterery, Calif., West Virginia University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

``A lot of these kids are sharp and will bring a lot of talent and knowledge to these agencies,'' said Julie Evans, a 43-year-old graduate of the program with a bachelor's and a master's degree in computer science. ``There's such a shortage of computer specialists.''

On Sunday, the group will visit the Oklahoma City bombing memorial.

The greatest Internet threat to the government is its vulnerability, said Daniel Wolf, an information assurance director for the National Security Agency.

``A lot of the vulnerabilities we know about, and we have fixes for,'' he said. ``We just haven't made the fixes.''

Wolf said the 911 system could be another vulnerable area. ``We need to be careful about the denial-of-service attack, where they could flood the system with calls,'' he said.