White House Selects Fordham for Cybersecurity Rollout

As co-host to the International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS) with the FBI, Fordham has an established presence in the intelligence community. Now, Fordham has been selected by the White House as one of three New York City universities to be part of a national rollout of an executive order that calls for a framework to reduce the nation’s cyber risk.

Titled “Reducing the Nation’s Cyber Risk: White House Insights on the President’s Critical Infrastructure Framework,” the event will feature a panel discussion and keynote address from White House Director for Cybersecurity Critical Infrastructure Protection Samara Moore.

The School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) and the Computer and Information Sciences Department will host the event on Tuesday, March 11 at both the Lincoln Center and Westchester campuses. Similar events will take place at Columbia and New York Universities.

“It fits perfectly with Fordham’s cybersecurity interests,” said Isabelle Frank, Ph.D., dean of PCS. “There's a track record here.”

Among the panelists will be Fordham's Frank Hsu, Ph.D., Clavius Distinguished Professor of Science and professor of computer and information science. Other panelists include:

• Jon Boyens, senior advisor, information security, Information Technology Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce
• Bob Kolasky, director of strategy and policy, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
• Doug Wylie, director, Product Security Risk Management, Rockwell Automation
• David J. Youssef, cyber incident investigator, Citigroup; teaching fellow, Department of Computer and Information Sciences.   

The panel will be moderated by Michael Coden,, vice president of the New York Section of  ISA99 Cyber Security Standard Working Group and vice president at NextNine.

Coden said the discussion will address how President Obama's new cyber security framework will affect nearly all industries, including energy, finance, healthcare, communications, transportation, water, chemicals, IT, defense, manufacturing, and nuclear weaponry.

“And lawyers,” said Coden. “This will be big business for the legal profession.”

Tuesday, March 11th

Westchester Campus
8 – 11:30 a.m.
Rooms 228-230

Lincoln Center Campus
1:30 – 4:30 p.m.
12th-floor Lounge
E. Gerald Corrigan Conference Center

-Tom Stoelker

Fordham Senior to Receive Ethics Award at White House

Joseph Vignone, a Fordham College at Lincoln Center senior, is going to the White House to meet President Barack Obama.

The Fordham theology and history double major won the nationally renowned 2010 Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics last summer. He is slated to receive the award at an upcoming ceremony, date pending, with the President and the handful of other student runners-up and honorable mentions.

Also present at the awards ceremony will be 82-year-old Elie Wiesel, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor, whose Foundation for Humanity created the prize in 1989.

The prize is given to a college junior or senior annually for an essay that articulates an ethical issue, often of a religious or political nature. Vignone, who is also earning a minor in Middle Eastern Studies, won for his essay examining the choices of good vs. evil, as illustrated through the story of Iblis, an angelic figure in Islamic theology.

The Staten Island native was mentored by his advisor Aristotle Papanikolaou, Ph.D., associate professor of theology and associate chair for undergraduate studies and co-founding director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Program, and by Kathryn Kueny, Ph.D., clinical associate professor of theology.

While Vignone is in Washington, he will also meet fellow Fordhamite John O. Brennan (FCRH ‘77), chief counterterrorism advisor to President Obama.

Brennan, who spent 25 years in the CIA before receiving his White House appointment, meets with the President for a daily intelligence briefing.

—Janet Sassi